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 ** Guile now includes its own version of libltdl.
123 We now use a modified version of libltdl that allows us to make
124 improvements to it without having to rely on libtool releases.
126 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
128 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
130 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
131 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
133 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
135 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
136 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
138 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
140 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
141 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
144 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
147 (define-module (demo)
151 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
154 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
156 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
158 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
161 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
163 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
164 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
165 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
168 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
169 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
170 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
173 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
175 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
176 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
177 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
180 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
183 ** Checking for duplicate bindings in module system
185 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
188 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more duplicates
189 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
197 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
198 has been detected is to
200 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
201 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
202 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
205 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
208 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
210 to your .guile init file.
212 The syntax for the :duplicates option is:
214 :duplicates HANDLER-NAME | (HANDLER1-NAME HANDLER2-NAME ...)
216 Specifying multiple handlers is useful since some handlers (such as
217 replace) can defer conflict resolution to others. Each handler is
218 tried until a binding is selected.
220 Currently available duplicates handlers are:
222 check report an error for bindings with a common name
223 warn issue a warning for bindings with a common name
224 replace replace bindings which have an imported replacement
225 warn-override-core issue a warning for imports which override core bindings
226 and accept the override
227 first select the first encountered binding (override)
228 last select the last encountered binding (override)
230 These two are provided by the (oop goops) module:
232 merge-generics merge generic functions with a common name
233 into an <extended-generic>
234 merge-accessors merge accessors with a common name
236 The default duplicates handler is:
238 (replace warn-override-core warn last)
240 A recommended handler (which is likely to correspond to future Guile
241 behavior) can be installed with:
243 (default-duplicate-binding-handler '(replace warn-override-core check))
245 ** New define-module option: :replace
247 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
250 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
251 for the core binding `format'.
253 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
255 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
256 a prefix to all imported bindings.
259 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
261 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
264 ** Merging generic functions
266 It is sometimes tempting to use GOOPS accessors with short names.
267 For example, it is tempting to use the name `x' for the x-coordinate
270 Assume that we work with a graphical package which needs to use two
271 independent vector packages for 2D and 3D vectors respectively. If
272 both packages export `x' we will encounter a name collision.
274 This can now be resolved automagically with the duplicates handler
275 `merge-generics' which gives the module system license to merge all
276 generic functions sharing a common name:
278 (define-module (math 2D-vectors)
279 :use-module (oop goops)
282 (define-module (math 3D-vectors)
283 :use-module (oop goops)
286 (define-module (my-module)
287 :use-module (math 2D-vectors)
288 :use-module (math 3D-vectors)
289 :duplicates merge-generics)
291 x in (my-module) will now share methods with x in both imported
294 There will, in fact, now be three distinct generic functions named
295 `x': x in (2D-vectors), x in (3D-vectors), and x in (my-module). The
296 last function will be an <extended-generic>, extending the previous
299 Let's call the imported generic functions the "ancestor functions". x
300 in (my-module) is, in turn, a "descendant function" of the imported
301 functions, extending its ancestors.
303 For any generic function G, the applicable methods are selected from
304 the union of the methods of the descendant functions, the methods of G
305 itself and the methods of the ancestor functions.
307 This, ancestor functions share methods with their descendants and vice
308 versa. This implies that x in (math 2D-vectors) can will share the
309 methods of x in (my-module) and vice versa, while x in (math 2D-vectors)
310 doesn't share the methods of x in (math 3D-vectors), thus preserving
313 Sharing is dynamic, so that adding new methods to a descendant implies
314 adding it to the ancestor.
316 If duplicates checking is desired in the above example, the following
317 form of the :duplicates option can be used instead:
319 :duplicates (merge-generics check)
321 ** New function: effective-version
323 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
324 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
325 to the distribution" above.
327 ** Futures: future, make-future, future-ref
329 Futures are like promises, but begun immediately in a new thread. See
330 the "Futures" section in the reference manual.
332 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
334 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
335 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
337 ** Fair mutexes and condition variables
339 Fair mutexes and condition variables have been added. The fairness
340 means that scheduling is arranged to give as equal time shares as
341 possible and that threads are awakened in a first-in-first-out
342 manner. This is not guaranteed with standard mutexes and condition
345 In addition, fair mutexes are recursive. Locking a fair mutex that
346 you have already locked will succeed. Every call to lock-mutex must
347 be matched with a call to unlock-mutex. Only the last call to
348 unlock-mutex will actually unlock the mutex.
350 A fair condition variable must be used together with a fair mutex,
351 just as a standard condition variable must be used together with a
354 ** New functions: make-fair-mutex, make-fair-condition-variable'
356 Make a new fair mutex and a new fair condition variable respectively.
358 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
360 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
361 instead if blocking and indicate failure.
363 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
365 The funtion 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
366 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
369 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
371 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
373 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
375 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
376 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
377 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
380 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
381 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
382 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
385 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
386 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
388 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
390 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
391 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
394 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
395 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
397 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
398 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
399 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
400 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
401 level for the current thread.
403 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
405 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
407 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
408 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
411 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
413 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
415 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
418 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
420 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
423 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
424 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
425 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
427 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
428 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
429 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
430 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
441 ERROR: Numerical overflow
443 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
446 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
448 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
449 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
450 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
461 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
463 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
464 them is also done exactly, of course:
469 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
472 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
473 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
475 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
477 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
478 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
479 equal to a floating point number. For example:
481 (inexact->exact 1.234)
482 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
484 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitely:
486 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
489 ** New function 'rationalize'.
491 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
492 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
494 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
497 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
498 result when both its arguments are exact.
500 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
502 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
503 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
504 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
506 ** We now have uninterned symbols.
508 The new function 'make-symbol' will return a uninterned symbol. This
509 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
510 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
512 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
515 ** pretty-print has more options.
517 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
518 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
519 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
521 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
523 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
524 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
525 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
527 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
529 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
530 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
532 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
534 Change your code to use either procedure->memoizing-macro or, probably better,
535 to use r5rs macros. Also, be aware that macro expansion will not be done
536 during evaluation, but prior to evaluation.
538 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
540 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
541 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
542 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
543 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
544 without the soft port blocking.
546 ** New debugging feature: breakpoints.
548 Guile now has breakpoints. For details see the `Debugging Features'
549 chapter in the reference manual.
551 ** Deprecated: undefine
553 There is no replacement for undefine.
555 ** call-with-output-string doesn't segv on closed port
557 Previously call-with-output-string would give a segmentation fault if
558 the string port was closed by the called function. An exception is
561 ** (ice-9 popen) duplicate pipe fd fix
563 open-pipe, open-input-pipe and open-output-pipe left an extra copy of
564 their pipe file descriptor in the child, which was normally harmless,
565 but it can prevent the parent seeing eof or a broken pipe immediately
566 and has now been fixed.
568 ** source-properties and set-source-properties! fix
570 Properties set with set-source-properties! can now be read back
571 correctly with source-properties.
575 delete and delete! now call the "=" procedure with arguments in the
576 order described by the SRFI-1 specification
578 list-copy now accepts improper lists, per the specification.
582 date-week-number now correctly respects the requested day of week
585 * Changes to the C interface
587 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
589 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
590 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
591 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
593 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
594 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
596 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
597 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
598 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
599 smob words. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
601 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and reentries.
603 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
604 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
605 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
606 prevent a potential memory leak:
615 mem = scm_malloc (100);
616 scm_frame_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY);
618 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
619 SCM_FRAME_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless. */
625 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY, MEM will be freed by
626 SCM_FRAME_END as well.
630 For full documentation, see the node "Frames" in the manual.
632 ** New way to block and unblock asyncs
634 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
635 scm_frame_block_asyncs in a 'frame' (see above). Likewise for
636 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_frame_unblock_asyncs.
638 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
640 C code can now use scm_frame_current_<foo>_port in a 'frame' (see
641 above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
643 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
645 C code can now use scm_frame_fluid in a 'frame' (see
646 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
648 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
650 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
651 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
652 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
654 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
656 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
657 private or renamed with a more suitable public name. See below for
658 the ones which have been renamed.
660 ** HAVE_STDINT_H and HAVE_INTTYPES_H have been removed from public use.
662 HAVE_STDINT_H and HAVE_INTTYPES_H removed from public use. These are
663 no longer needed since the older uses of stdint.h and inttypes.h are
664 now handled by configure.in and gen-scmconfig.c.
666 ** USE_DLL_IMPORT is no longer defined publically.
668 gen-scmconfig now uses it to decide what contents to place in the
669 public scmconfig.h header without adding the USE_DLL_IMPORT itself.
671 ** HAVE_LIMITS_H has been removed from public use.
673 gen-scmconfig now just uses HAVE_LIMITS_H to decide whether or not to
674 add a limits.h include in scmconfig.h.
676 ** time.h, sys/time.h, etc. #ifdefery has been removed from public headers.
678 gen-scmconfig now just uses the same logic to decide what time related
679 #includes to add to scmconfig.h.
681 ** HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC has been removed from public use.
683 scmconfig.h now just defines scm_t_timespec.
685 ** HAVE_PTRDIFF has been removed from public use and Guile doesn't
688 Guile now publically defines scm_t_ptrdiff and
689 SCM_SIZEOF_SCM_T_PTRDIFF in scmconfig.h, and all occurrences of
690 ptrdiff_t have been replaced with scm_t_ptrdiff.
692 Guile defines its own type this rather than just relying on ptrdiff_t
693 and SCM_SIZEOF_PTRDIFF_T because Guile actually typedefs long to
694 scm_t_ptrdiff when ptrdiff_t isn't available. A public "typedef long
695 ptrdiff_t" could conflict with other headers.
697 ** HAVE_UINTPTR_T and HAVE_UINTPTR_T have been removed from public use.
699 They are replaced by public definitions of SCM_SIZEOF_UINTPTR_T and
700 SCM_SIZEOF_INTPTR_T. These are defined to 0 if the corresponding type
703 ** The public #define STDC_HEADERS has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_STDC_HEADERS.
705 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
707 ** The public #define HAVE_SYS_SELECT has been renamed to
708 SCM_HAVE_SYS_SELECT_H.
710 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
712 ** The public #define HAVE_FLOATINGPOINT_H has been renamed to
713 SCM_HAVE_FLOATINGPOINT_H.
715 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
717 ** The public #define HAVE_IEEEFP_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_IEEEFP_H.
719 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
721 ** The public #define HAVE_NAN_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_NAN_H.
723 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
725 ** The public #define HAVE_WINSOCK2_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_WINSOCK2_H.
727 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
729 ** The public #define HAVE_ARRAYS has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_ARRAYS.
731 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
733 ** The public #define STACK_GROWS_UP has been renamed to SCM_STACK_GROWS_UP.
735 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
737 ** The public #define USE_PTHREAD_THREADS has been renamed to
738 SCM_USE_PTHREAD_THREADS.
740 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
742 ** The public #define USE_NULL_THREADS has been renamed to
743 SCM_USE_NULL_THREADS.
745 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
747 ** The public #define USE_COOP_THREADS has been renamed to
748 SCM_USE_COOP_THREADS.
750 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
752 ** SCM_C_INLINE is publically defined if possible.
754 If the platform has a way to define inline functions, SCM_C_INLINE
755 will be defined to that text. Otherwise it will be undefined. This
756 is a little bit different than autoconf's normal handling of the
757 inline define via AC_C_INLINE.
759 ** Guile now publically defines some basic type infrastructure.
764 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_CHAR
766 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_SHORT
768 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_LONG
770 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_INT
771 SCM_SIZEOF_LONG_LONG /* defined to 0 if type not available */
772 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG /* defined to 0 if type not available */
781 Guile always defines these to 0 or 1
786 and when either of these are defined to 1, also defines
797 ** The macro SCM_IFLAGP now only returns true for flags
799 User code should never have used this macro anyway. And, you should not use
800 it in the future either. Thus, the following explanation is just for the
801 impropable case that your code actually made use of this macro, and that you
802 are willing to depend on internals which will probably change in the near
805 Formerly, SCM_IFLAGP also returned true for evaluator bytecodes created with
806 SCM_MAKSPCSYM (short instructions) and evaluator bytecodes created with
807 SCM_MAKISYM (short instructions). Now, SCM_IFLAG only returns true for
808 Guile's special constants created with SCM_MAKIFLAG. To achieve the old
809 behaviour, instead of
813 you would have to write
815 (SCM_ISYMP(x) || SCM_IFLAGP(x))
817 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
819 This macro is not intended for public use. However, if you allocated types
820 with tc16 type codes in a way that you would have needed this macro, you are
821 expected to have a deep knowledge of Guile's type system. Thus, you should
822 know how to replace this macro.
824 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
826 Use SCM_INEXACTP instead.
828 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
830 Use SCM_REALP instead.
832 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
834 Use SCM_COMPLEXP instead.
836 ** The preprocessor define USE_THREADS has been deprecated.
838 Going forward, assume that the thread API is always present.
840 ** The preprocessor define GUILE_ISELECT has been deprecated.
842 Going forward, assume that scm_internal_select is always present.
844 ** The preprocessor define READER_EXTENSIONS has been deprecated.
846 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
847 READER_EXTENSIONS are always present.
849 ** The preprocessor define DEBUG_EXTENSIONS has been deprecated.
851 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
852 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS are always present.
854 ** The preprocessor define DYNAMIC_LINKING has been deprecated.
856 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
857 DYNAMIC_LINKING are always present.
859 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
861 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
862 programs. (Do not use.)
864 ** New function: scm_effective_version
866 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
867 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
868 to the distribution" above.
870 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
872 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
873 arguments are now passed directly:
875 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
877 This is an incompatible change.
879 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
881 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
882 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
883 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
885 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
886 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
888 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
890 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
892 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
893 function in the init section.
895 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
897 ** New macros SCM_VECTOR_REF and SCM_VECTOR_SET.
899 Use these in preference to SCM_VELTS.
901 ** The SCM_VELTS macros now returns a read-only vector. For writing,
902 use the new macros SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS or SCM_VECTOR_SET. The use of
903 SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS is discouraged, though.
905 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
907 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
908 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
909 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
910 stays roughly constant.
912 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
913 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
914 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
915 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
916 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
919 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
920 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
921 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
922 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
924 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
926 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
928 ** The struct scm_cell has been renamed to scm_t_cell
930 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
931 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
932 initializes a new cell (see below).
934 ** New functions for memory management
936 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
937 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
938 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
939 cause aborts in long running programs.
941 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
942 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
944 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
945 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
946 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
947 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
948 details and for upgrading instructions.
950 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
951 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
952 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
954 ** New function: scm_str2string
956 This function creates a scheme string from a 0-terminated C string. The input
959 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
961 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
962 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
963 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
964 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
965 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
967 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
968 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
969 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
971 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, QT_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
972 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
974 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
976 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old macros
977 had problems because with them allocation and initialization was separated and
978 the GC could sometimes observe half initialized cells. Only careful coding by
979 the user of SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
981 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
983 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
986 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
988 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
990 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
992 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or, probably better, to use r5rs
993 macros. Also, be aware that macro expansion will not be done during
994 evaluation, but prior to evaluation.
996 ** Removed from scm_root_state: def_inp, def_outp, def_errp, together
997 with corresponding macros scm_def_inp, scm_def_outp and scm_def_errp.
998 These were undocumented and unused copies of the standard ports at the
999 time that Guile was initialised. Normally the current ports should be
1000 used instead, obtained from scm_current_input_port () etc. If an
1001 application needs to retain earlier ports, it should save them in a
1002 gc-protected location.
1004 ** Removed compile time option MEMOIZE_LOCALS
1006 Now, caching of local variable positions during memoization is mandatory.
1007 However, the option to disable the caching has most probably not been used
1010 ** Removed compile time option SCM_RECKLESS
1012 Full number of arguments checking of closures is mandatory now. However, the
1013 option to disable the checking has most probably not been used anyway.
1015 ** Removed compile time option SCM_CAUTIOUS
1017 Full number of arguments checking of closures is mandatory now. However, the
1018 option to disable the checking has most probably not been used anyway.
1020 ** Deprecated configure flags USE_THREADS and GUILE_ISELECT
1022 Previously, when the C preprocessor macro USE_THREADS was defined,
1023 libguile included a thread API. This API is now always included, even
1024 when threads are not really supported. Thus, you don't need to test
1027 Analogously, GUILE_ISELECT was defined when the function
1028 scm_internal_select was provided by Guile. This function is now
1029 always defined, and GUILE_ISELECT with it.
1031 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1033 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1034 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1036 ** Deprecated definitions of error strings: scm_s_expression, scm_s_test,
1037 scm_s_body, scm_s_bindings, scm_s_variable, scm_s_clauses, scm_s_formals
1039 These error message strings were used to issue syntax error messages by
1040 guile's evaluator. It's unlikely that they have been used by user code.
1042 ** Deprecated helper macros for evaluation and application: SCM_EVALIM2,
1043 SCM_EVALIM, SCM_XEVAL, SCM_XEVALCAR
1045 These macros were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's unlikely
1046 that they have been used by user code.
1048 ** Deprecated helper functions for evaluation and application:
1049 scm_m_expand_body, scm_macroexp
1051 These functions were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's
1052 unlikely that they have been used by user code.
1054 ** Deprecated functions and variables for evaluation and application:
1055 scm_ceval, scm_deval and scm_ceval_ptr
1057 These functions and variables were used in the implementation of the
1058 evaluator. It's unlikely that they have been used by user code. If you have
1059 used these functions, switch to scm_eval or scm_eval_x.
1061 ** Deprecated functions for unmemoization: scm_unmemocar
1063 ** Deprecated definitions for iloc and isym handling
1065 SCM_ILOC00, SCM_IDINC, SCM_IDSTMSK, SCM_IFRINC, SCM_ICDR, SCM_IFRAME,
1066 SCM_IDIST, SCM_ICDRP, SCM_ISYMNUM, SCM_ISYMCHARS, scm_isymnames.
1068 These definitions were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's
1069 unlikely that they have been used by user code.
1071 ** Removed definitions: scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify,
1072 scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify, scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify,
1073 scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify, scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell,
1074 scm_debug_newcell2, scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH,
1075 SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY, SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY,
1076 SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED, scm_debug_newcell,
1077 scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL,
1078 SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL,
1079 SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS,
1080 scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var, *top-level-lookup-closure*,
1081 scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3, scm_eval2,
1082 root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP,
1083 scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring, scm_tc7_substring,
1084 sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP, SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig,
1085 scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big,
1086 scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT, SCM_SETCHARS,
1087 SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_LENGTH_MAX,
1088 SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS,
1089 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR, scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern,
1090 scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1091 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1092 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1093 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1094 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1095 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1096 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1097 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1098 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1099 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1100 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1101 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable
1103 ** Deprecated definitions for debugging: scm_debug_mode, SCM_DEBUGGINGP
1105 These functions were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's
1106 unlikely that they have been used by user code.
1108 ** Removed macro SCM_MAKSPCSYM
1110 This macro was used for defining byte codes of the evaluator. It is almost
1111 impossible that user code has used this macro.
1114 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1116 * Changes to the distribution
1118 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1120 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1122 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1123 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1124 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1125 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1126 indicate major changes in Guile.
1128 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1129 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1130 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1131 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1133 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1134 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1135 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1136 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1137 micro version number.
1139 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1141 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1143 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1144 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1146 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1148 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1149 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1150 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1152 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1154 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1155 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1156 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1159 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1161 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1164 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1166 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1167 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1169 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1171 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1172 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1175 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1177 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1180 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1183 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1185 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1187 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1188 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1189 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1191 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1193 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1195 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1198 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1200 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1202 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1204 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1205 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1206 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1208 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1210 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1212 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1213 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1222 See README there for more info.
1224 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1225 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1228 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1230 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1232 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1234 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1235 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1236 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1238 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1240 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1241 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1242 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1244 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1245 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1247 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1250 (oop goops describe)
1252 (oop goops active-slot)
1253 (oop goops composite-slot)
1255 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1256 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1257 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1259 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1261 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1262 in the default environment:
1264 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1265 %read-line write-line
1267 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1268 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1270 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1272 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1275 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1276 can be used for similar functionality.
1278 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1280 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1281 it defines two procedures:
1283 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1285 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1286 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1287 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1290 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1292 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1293 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1294 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1295 write large strings.
1297 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1299 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1300 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1302 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1304 for complete documentation.
1306 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1308 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1309 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1310 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1311 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1313 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1314 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1318 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1319 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1320 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1323 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1326 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1327 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1329 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1330 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1333 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1336 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1338 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1340 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1342 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1344 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1345 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1346 Scheme programs easier.
1348 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1349 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1350 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1351 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1352 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1355 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1356 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1358 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1361 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1363 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1364 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1365 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1368 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1370 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1372 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1373 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1374 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1375 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1376 was also ASCII, for example.
1378 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1380 tag - no replacement.
1381 fseek - replaced by seek.
1382 list* - replaced by cons*.
1384 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1388 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1389 (define m (make-safe-module))
1390 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1391 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1392 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1394 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1396 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1397 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1398 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1400 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1402 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1403 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1404 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1405 from the issues related to the module system.
1407 *** New function: load-extension
1409 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1411 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1413 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1414 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1415 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1417 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1419 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1420 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1421 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1422 support dynamic linking).
1424 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1426 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1427 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1428 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1429 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1432 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1433 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1434 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1435 library and initialize it explicitely.
1437 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1438 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1440 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1442 (define-module (foo bar))
1444 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1446 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1448 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1449 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1451 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1452 (null-environment 5)
1453 (interaction-environment)
1459 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1461 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1462 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1463 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1464 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1466 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1467 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1468 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1469 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1470 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1471 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1472 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1473 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1474 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1475 one eval to the next.
1477 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1478 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1479 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1480 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1481 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1483 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1484 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1485 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1486 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1487 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1488 used in a lexical environment.
1490 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1491 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1492 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1493 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1494 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1495 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1497 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1499 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1500 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1501 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1502 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1503 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1505 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1506 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1507 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1509 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1510 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1512 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1513 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1514 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1516 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1517 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1519 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1520 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1521 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1522 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1525 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1526 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1527 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1528 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1530 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1531 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1532 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1534 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1535 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1536 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1537 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1538 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1540 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1542 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1543 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1544 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1546 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1547 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1548 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1550 See manual for more info.
1552 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1554 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1555 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1556 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1558 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1560 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1561 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1562 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1564 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1565 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1566 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1567 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1569 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1571 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1572 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1574 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1575 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1576 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1577 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1578 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1581 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1582 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1583 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1584 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1585 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1586 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1588 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1589 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1590 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1591 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1592 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1594 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1595 objects are usually permanent.
1597 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1598 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1600 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1602 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1603 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1606 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1610 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1615 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1617 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1618 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1619 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1620 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1622 ** New function `make-object-property'
1624 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
1625 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
1629 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
1630 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
1634 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
1635 source properties eventually.
1637 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
1639 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
1640 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
1641 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
1643 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
1644 will be removed in the next release.
1646 ** New define-module option: pure
1648 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
1653 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
1656 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
1658 Export names NAME1 ...
1660 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
1661 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
1665 (define-module (foo)
1667 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
1670 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
1675 ** New function: object->string OBJ
1677 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
1679 ** New function: port? X
1681 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
1682 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
1684 ** New function: file-port?
1686 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
1688 ** New function: port-for-each proc
1690 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
1691 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
1692 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
1693 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
1694 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
1696 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
1698 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
1699 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
1700 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
1701 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
1702 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
1705 ** New function: close-fdes fd
1707 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
1708 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
1709 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
1710 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
1713 ** New function: crypt password salt
1715 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
1718 ** New function: chroot path
1720 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
1722 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
1724 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
1727 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
1729 Get or set the priority of the running process.
1731 ** New function: getpass prompt
1733 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
1736 ** New function: flock file operation
1738 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
1740 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
1742 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
1745 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
1747 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
1748 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
1749 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
1750 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
1751 of the temporary file.
1753 ** New function: open-input-string string
1755 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
1756 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
1757 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
1759 ** New function: open-output-string
1761 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
1762 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
1764 ** New function: get-output-string
1766 Return the contents of an output string port.
1768 ** New function: identity
1770 Return the argument.
1772 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
1773 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
1775 ** New function: inet-pton family address
1777 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
1778 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
1779 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1782 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
1783 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
1785 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
1787 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
1788 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
1789 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1792 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
1793 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
1794 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
1798 Use `identity' instead.
1804 ** Deprecated: return-it
1808 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
1810 Use `string-length' instead.
1812 ** Deprecated: flags
1814 Use `logior' instead.
1816 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
1818 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
1819 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
1820 port-for-each is more flexible.
1822 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
1823 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
1824 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
1826 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
1828 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
1830 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
1832 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
1834 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
1836 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
1837 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
1839 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
1840 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
1842 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
1843 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
1845 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
1847 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
1848 Removed function: builtin-bindings
1850 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
1851 Use module system operations for all variables.
1853 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
1855 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
1858 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
1860 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
1861 The following bugs have been fixed:
1863 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
1864 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
1867 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
1868 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
1869 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
1871 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
1872 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
1874 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
1875 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
1878 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
1879 The expansion used to be like so:
1881 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
1883 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
1885 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
1887 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
1888 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
1890 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
1892 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
1893 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
1894 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
1898 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
1899 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
1901 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
1906 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
1907 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
1909 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
1910 and `d', other keywords allowed.
1911 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
1913 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
1916 * Changes to the C interface
1918 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
1920 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
1921 with "_t". What a concept.
1923 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
1925 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
1927 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
1931 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
1932 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
1934 *** C Functions removed
1936 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
1937 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
1938 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
1939 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
1940 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
1941 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
1942 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
1944 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
1946 Use scm_mem2string instead.
1948 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
1950 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
1952 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
1953 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
1955 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
1957 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
1960 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
1962 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
1964 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
1966 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
1967 Evaluation" in the manual.
1969 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
1971 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
1972 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
1974 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
1976 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
1977 Constructors" in the manual.
1979 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
1981 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
1982 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
1984 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
1986 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
1988 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
1989 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
1990 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
1992 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
1994 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
1996 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
1997 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
1998 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2001 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2003 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2005 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2006 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2008 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2010 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2011 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2012 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2013 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2015 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2016 scm_primitive_property_ref
2017 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2018 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2020 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2021 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2023 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2025 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2026 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2027 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2028 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2030 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2032 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2033 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2034 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2035 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2036 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2037 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2038 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2040 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2041 scm_remember_upto_here
2043 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2045 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2047 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2048 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2050 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2052 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2054 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2056 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2058 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2060 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2061 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2062 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2063 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2064 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2065 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2067 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2069 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2071 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2072 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2073 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2075 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2077 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2078 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2079 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2081 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2083 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2084 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2087 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2090 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2091 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2094 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2096 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2098 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2100 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2102 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2104 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2106 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2107 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2108 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2109 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2110 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2111 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2112 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2113 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2114 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2115 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2116 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2117 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2118 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2119 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2120 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2122 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2123 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2124 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2125 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2126 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2127 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2128 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2129 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2130 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2131 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2132 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2133 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2134 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2135 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2136 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2137 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2138 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2139 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2140 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2141 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2142 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2143 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2144 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2145 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2146 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2147 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2148 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2149 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2150 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2152 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2154 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2156 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2157 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2159 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2161 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2163 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2165 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2167 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2169 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2171 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2173 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2175 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2178 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2179 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2181 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2183 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2185 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2187 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2189 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2191 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2193 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2195 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2198 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2200 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2202 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2204 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2205 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2207 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2208 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2210 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2212 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2213 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2214 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2216 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2218 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2220 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2221 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2223 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2224 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2225 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2226 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2228 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2229 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2230 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2232 Use the new ones from above instead.
2234 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2236 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2237 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2238 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2240 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2241 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2243 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2244 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2247 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2248 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2250 Use the new functions instead.
2252 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2255 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2257 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2259 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2262 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2264 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2267 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2269 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2272 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2273 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2274 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2276 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2278 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2279 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2281 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2282 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2283 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2284 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2287 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2289 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2290 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2291 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2292 inexact for an exact.
2294 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2295 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2296 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2299 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2300 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2301 accept an inexact argument.
2303 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2304 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2306 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2309 ** New number validation macros:
2310 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2314 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2316 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2317 scm_unprotect_object.
2319 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2321 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2323 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2326 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2328 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2332 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2334 * Changes to the distribution
2336 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2338 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2339 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2340 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2341 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2342 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2343 obtain these programs.
2344 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2345 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2347 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2348 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2349 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2350 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2351 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2353 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2354 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2355 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2356 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2360 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2363 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2364 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2365 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2366 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2368 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2370 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2372 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2373 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2375 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2376 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2378 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2379 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2381 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2382 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2383 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2384 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2386 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2388 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2392 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2393 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2395 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2397 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2398 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2400 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2401 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2402 number of objects of that kind.
2404 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2406 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2407 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2408 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2409 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2410 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2412 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2414 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2416 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2418 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2421 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2423 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2425 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2427 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2429 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2431 ** New command line option --debug
2433 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2435 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2437 ** New help facility
2439 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2440 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2441 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2442 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2443 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2444 (help) gives this text
2446 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2447 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2449 Examples: (help help)
2451 (help "output-string")
2453 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2455 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2457 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2458 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2461 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2462 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2463 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2466 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2467 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2468 use absolute filenames when possible.
2470 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2471 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2472 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2475 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2477 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2478 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2479 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2480 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2482 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2484 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2486 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2487 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2488 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2490 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2491 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2492 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2494 (read-enable 'positions)
2495 (debug-enable 'debug)
2497 ** Backtraces in scripts
2499 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2503 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2505 at the top of the script.
2507 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2508 The second enables backtraces.)
2510 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2512 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2513 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2514 substantially faster than before.
2516 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2517 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2519 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2520 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2522 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2524 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2525 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2526 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2528 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2529 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2530 when this hook is run in the future.
2532 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2533 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2535 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2537 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2538 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2541 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2542 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2543 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2545 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2546 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2548 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2549 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2551 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2552 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2553 in order not to need further allocation.)
2555 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2558 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2559 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2560 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2561 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2563 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2565 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2568 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2570 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2573 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2574 GC in percent of total heap size
2577 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2578 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2580 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2582 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2583 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2585 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2587 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2588 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2590 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2592 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2593 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2597 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2598 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2600 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2602 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2604 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2606 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2608 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2610 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2611 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2613 (simple-format port message . args)
2614 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2615 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2616 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2617 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2618 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2619 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2620 Does not add a trailing newline."
2622 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
2624 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
2625 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
2627 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
2628 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
2630 ** Deprecated: list*
2632 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
2634 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
2636 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
2637 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
2639 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
2640 is returned as result.
2642 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
2644 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
2646 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
2648 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
2649 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
2652 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
2654 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
2656 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
2657 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
2659 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2661 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
2663 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
2665 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2667 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
2669 Thanks to Greg Badros!
2671 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2673 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2674 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
2675 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
2677 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
2680 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
2682 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
2683 the readability of argument checking.
2685 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
2687 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
2689 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
2691 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
2692 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
2693 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
2694 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
2695 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
2696 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
2697 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
2699 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
2701 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
2703 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
2704 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
2706 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
2708 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
2709 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
2712 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
2714 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
2715 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
2716 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
2718 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
2719 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
2720 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
2722 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
2723 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
2724 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
2725 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
2726 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
2727 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
2728 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
2730 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
2731 scm_end_input (object);
2732 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
2733 ptob->flush (object);
2735 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
2736 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
2739 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
2741 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
2743 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
2744 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
2745 removed in a future version.
2747 ** The format of error message strings has changed
2749 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
2750 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
2751 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
2752 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
2754 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
2755 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
2757 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
2760 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
2762 in your configure.in.
2764 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
2769 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
2775 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
2777 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
2781 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
2782 (define make-message string-append)
2784 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
2786 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
2790 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
2795 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
2799 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
2801 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
2802 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
2804 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
2806 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
2807 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
2808 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
2809 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
2810 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
2811 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
2813 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
2814 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
2815 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
2817 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
2818 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
2819 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
2822 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
2823 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
2824 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
2825 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
2826 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
2828 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
2829 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
2830 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
2831 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
2832 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
2833 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
2834 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
2836 Destructors are not yet implemented.
2838 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
2839 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
2840 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
2842 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
2843 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
2844 KEY in the calling thread.
2846 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
2847 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
2848 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
2849 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
2850 associated with the key.
2852 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
2854 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
2855 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
2857 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
2859 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
2860 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
2861 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
2863 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
2865 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
2866 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
2868 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
2870 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
2872 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
2873 returned is undefined.
2875 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
2876 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
2877 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
2879 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
2880 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
2881 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
2883 ** New C level GC hooks
2885 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
2887 scm_before_gc_c_hook
2890 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
2891 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
2892 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
2894 scm_before_mark_c_hook
2895 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
2896 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
2898 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
2899 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
2902 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
2904 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
2905 allocation parameters
2907 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
2908 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
2909 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
2913 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
2914 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
2915 scm_default_max_segment_size
2917 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
2919 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
2920 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
2922 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
2924 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
2925 object and count on the object being protected until
2926 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
2928 The functions also have better time complexity.
2930 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
2931 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
2932 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
2933 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
2934 are no longer needed.
2936 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
2938 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
2939 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
2940 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
2941 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
2943 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
2945 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
2947 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
2949 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
2950 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
2951 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
2952 until this issue has been settled.
2954 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
2956 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
2958 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
2961 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
2963 * Changes to system call interfaces:
2965 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
2966 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
2967 descriptors were checked.
2969 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
2970 atomically written to a pipe.
2972 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
2973 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
2974 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
2975 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
2976 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
2977 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
2978 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
2981 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
2982 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
2983 is changed without calling tzset.
2985 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
2987 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
2988 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
2989 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
2991 (define write-network-long
2992 (lambda (value port)
2993 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
2994 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
2995 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
2997 (define read-network-long
2999 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3000 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3001 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3003 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3004 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3006 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3007 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3008 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3009 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3011 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3012 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3013 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3014 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3018 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3020 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3024 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3025 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3026 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3032 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3033 for a description of available commands.
3035 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3036 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3037 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3039 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3041 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3042 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3044 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3046 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3048 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3049 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3050 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3051 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3052 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3053 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3056 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3058 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3059 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3060 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3061 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3063 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3064 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3066 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3068 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3070 ** Readline support has changed again.
3072 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3073 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3074 to activate readline is now
3076 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3079 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3081 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3082 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3083 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3086 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3087 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3088 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3091 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3092 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3093 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3094 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3095 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3096 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3098 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3099 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3101 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3103 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3104 object it receives is the same string passed to
3105 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3106 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3107 string, not the suffix.
3109 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3110 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3111 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3113 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3115 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3116 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3117 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3118 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3121 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3123 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3125 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3126 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3127 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3128 appear from left to right.
3130 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3133 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3135 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3136 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3138 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3142 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3144 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3146 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3148 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3149 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3150 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3152 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3154 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3156 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3158 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3161 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3163 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3164 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3165 mentioning it here anyway.
3167 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3169 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3170 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3171 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3172 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3175 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3177 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3179 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3181 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3182 otherwise return #f.
3184 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3186 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3187 returned by `opendir'.
3189 ** New function: using-readline?
3191 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3193 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3195 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3196 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3198 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3200 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3202 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3203 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3204 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3206 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3208 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3209 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3211 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3213 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3214 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3215 documentation slots are not yet used.
3217 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3219 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3220 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3221 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3226 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3227 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3228 (string-append x y))
3230 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3231 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3233 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3234 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3235 be made in a clean way.]
3237 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3239 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3241 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3243 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3244 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3246 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3248 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3250 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3252 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3254 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3255 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3256 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3257 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3260 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3262 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3264 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3266 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3268 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3269 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3271 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3273 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3275 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3277 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3279 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3280 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3281 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3282 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3283 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3284 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3286 This should not make any difference for most users.
3288 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3290 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3291 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3293 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3295 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3296 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3297 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3298 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3299 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3301 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3303 It is now replaced by:
3305 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3307 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3308 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3310 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3312 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3313 This might change when we get the new module system.
3315 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3319 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3321 * Changes to mailing lists
3323 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3325 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3328 * Changes to the distribution
3330 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3332 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3333 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3334 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3335 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3336 you explicitly specify it.
3338 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3339 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3340 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3341 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3342 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3345 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3346 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3347 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3348 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3350 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3351 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3352 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3355 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3357 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3360 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3362 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3364 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3365 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3366 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3367 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3369 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3370 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3373 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3375 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3376 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3377 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3378 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3379 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3380 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3381 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3382 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3394 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3395 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3396 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3397 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3398 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3403 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3404 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3412 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3417 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3418 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3421 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3422 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3423 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3424 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3426 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3428 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3430 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3431 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3433 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3435 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3437 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3438 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3440 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3443 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3445 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3447 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3449 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3451 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3453 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3455 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3456 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3457 when the hook was created.
3459 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3460 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3461 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3462 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3463 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3464 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3465 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3466 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3467 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3469 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3470 the dlopen family of functions.
3472 ** New function `provided?'
3474 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3475 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3476 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3477 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3479 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3481 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3482 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3483 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3484 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3487 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3488 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3489 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3490 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3492 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3493 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3494 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3497 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3498 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3499 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3500 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3501 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3502 but with the flag set.
3504 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3506 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3507 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3509 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3510 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3511 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3512 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3513 available Scheme format implementations.
3515 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3516 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3517 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3518 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3519 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3520 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3521 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3522 output is to the current error port if available by the
3523 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3526 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3527 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3528 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3529 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3530 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3531 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3532 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3533 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3535 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3536 be executed at a time.
3539 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3541 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3542 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3543 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3545 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3546 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3547 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3548 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3549 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3550 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3551 general form of a directive is:
3553 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3555 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3557 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3559 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3560 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3561 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3564 Any (print as `display' does).
3568 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3572 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3576 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3582 print number sign always.
3585 print comma separated.
3587 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3593 print number sign always.
3596 print comma separated.
3598 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3604 print number sign always.
3607 print comma separated.
3609 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3615 print number sign always.
3618 print comma separated.
3620 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
3625 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
3629 print a number as a Roman numeral.
3632 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
3635 print a number as an ordinal English number.
3638 print a number as a cardinal English number.
3643 prints `y' and `ies'.
3646 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3649 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3654 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
3658 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
3661 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
3662 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
3664 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3667 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
3668 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
3670 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3673 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
3675 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
3677 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3680 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
3682 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
3684 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3687 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
3690 The sign appears before the padding.
3698 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
3700 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
3705 print N page separators.
3715 newline is ignored, white space left.
3718 newline is left, white space ignored.
3723 relative tabulation.
3729 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
3731 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
3734 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
3736 converts by `string-capitalize'.
3739 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
3742 converts by `string-upcase'.
3745 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
3747 jumps N arguments forward.
3750 jumps 1 argument backward.
3753 jumps N arguments backward.
3756 jumps to the 0th argument.
3759 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
3761 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
3762 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
3764 take argument from N.
3767 true test conditional.
3770 if-else-then conditional.
3776 default clause follows.
3779 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
3781 at most N iterations.
3784 args from next arg (a list of lists).
3787 args from the rest of arguments.
3790 args from the rest args (lists).
3801 aborts if N <= M <= K
3803 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3806 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3809 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3815 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
3817 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
3819 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
3820 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
3821 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
3822 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
3823 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
3824 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
3828 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
3832 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
3838 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
3841 Print a `#\space' character
3843 print N `#\space' characters.
3846 Print a `#\tab' character
3848 print N `#\tab' characters.
3851 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
3852 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
3853 must be a positive decimal number.
3856 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3857 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3858 be processed by `read'.
3861 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3862 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3863 be processed by `read'.
3866 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
3869 prints format version.
3872 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
3873 and format it accordingly.
3875 *** Configuration Variables
3877 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
3878 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
3879 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
3880 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
3883 format:symbol-case-conv
3884 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
3885 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
3886 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
3887 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
3888 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
3890 format:iobj-case-conv
3891 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
3892 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
3895 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
3898 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
3904 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
3905 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
3906 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
3907 `format' padding style.
3910 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
3911 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
3912 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
3913 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
3917 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
3918 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
3919 directive parameters or modifiers)).
3922 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
3923 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
3924 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
3925 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
3926 parameters or modifiers)).
3929 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
3931 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
3933 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
3934 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
3936 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
3937 string-downcase! functions.
3939 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
3940 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
3942 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
3945 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
3948 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
3949 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
3951 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
3953 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
3954 the symbol had be read by `read'.
3956 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
3957 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
3958 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
3959 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
3960 would if STRING were input.
3962 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
3964 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
3965 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
3966 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
3967 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
3970 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
3972 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
3973 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
3976 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
3978 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
3979 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
3981 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
3982 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
3984 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
3985 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
3986 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
3987 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
3989 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
3990 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
3992 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
3993 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
3994 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
3996 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
3997 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
3999 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4000 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4001 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4002 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4003 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4005 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4006 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4007 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4008 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4009 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4010 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4012 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4013 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4014 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4017 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4018 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4019 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4020 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4021 the following grammar:
4022 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4023 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4024 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4025 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4026 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4027 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4028 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4029 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4030 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4031 last option in its combination)
4033 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4034 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4035 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4036 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4038 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4039 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4040 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4042 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4043 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4044 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4046 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4047 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4048 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4049 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4050 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4051 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4052 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4053 ordinary argument strings.
4055 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4056 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4057 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4058 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4060 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4061 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4063 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4064 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4065 - a required option is omitted
4066 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4067 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4068 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4069 - an option predicate fails
4074 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4077 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4078 (verbose (required? #f)
4081 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4082 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4083 (predicate ,string?))))
4085 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4086 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4088 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4089 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4090 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4091 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4094 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4096 It will be removed in a few releases.
4098 ** New syntax: lambda*
4099 ** New syntax: define*
4100 ** New syntax: define*-public
4101 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4102 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4103 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4105 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4106 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4107 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4108 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4109 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4111 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4112 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4113 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4115 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4117 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4118 and examples for `lambda*':
4121 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4123 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4124 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4125 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4126 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4127 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4128 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4129 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4130 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4132 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4134 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4135 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4136 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4137 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4139 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4140 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4141 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4142 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4143 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4144 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4145 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4146 and until the procedure is called.
4148 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4150 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4151 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4152 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4153 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4154 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4155 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4156 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4157 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4158 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4159 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4161 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4162 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4163 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4164 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4167 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4169 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4170 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4171 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4172 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4174 ** New syntax: and-let*
4175 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4177 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4178 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4179 (<variable> <expression>)
4182 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4183 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4184 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4187 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4188 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4189 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4190 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4191 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4192 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4193 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4195 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4196 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4197 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4198 shadow earlier bindings.
4200 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4202 ** New sorting functions
4204 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4205 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4206 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4207 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4209 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4210 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4213 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4214 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4215 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4217 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4218 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4219 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4220 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4222 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4223 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4224 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4225 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4226 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4229 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4230 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4231 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4232 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4233 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4234 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4236 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4237 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4238 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4240 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4241 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4242 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4245 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4246 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4247 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4249 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4250 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4252 ** New built-in random number support
4254 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4255 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4256 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4257 returned have a uniform distribution.
4259 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4260 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4261 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4262 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4263 effect of the `random' operation.
4265 *** New variable: *random-state*
4266 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4267 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4268 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4269 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4270 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4273 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4274 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4275 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4276 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4277 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4279 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4280 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4281 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4282 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4283 initialized using SEED.
4285 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4286 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4287 range between 0 and 1.
4289 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4290 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4291 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4292 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4293 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4294 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4295 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4297 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4298 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4299 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4300 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4301 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4302 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4304 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4305 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4306 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4307 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4309 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4310 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4311 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4312 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4314 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4315 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4316 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4318 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4320 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4323 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4324 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4327 ** New function: make-guardian
4328 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4329 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4330 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4331 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4332 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4334 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4335 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4336 one object if at all.
4338 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4339 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4340 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4342 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4343 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4344 read again in last-in first-out order.
4346 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4347 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4349 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4351 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4352 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4353 file position is used.
4355 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4356 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4357 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4359 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4360 redefined using seek.
4362 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4363 size is not supplied.
4365 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4366 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4368 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4369 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4371 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4373 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4374 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4375 and returns the contents as a single string.
4377 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4378 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4379 lists in serial order.
4381 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4382 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4383 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4385 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4386 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4387 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4388 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4390 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4391 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4392 and #f if an error occured.
4394 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4396 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4397 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4398 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4399 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4401 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4403 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4406 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4408 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4411 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4415 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4416 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4418 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4419 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4423 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4425 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4427 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4428 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4430 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4432 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4433 might change when we get the new module system.
4435 ** The smob interface
4437 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4438 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4440 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4442 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4446 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4447 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4448 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4449 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4450 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4451 will be freed by the default free function.
4453 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4454 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4455 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4456 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4458 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4459 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4460 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4461 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4463 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4465 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4466 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4470 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4471 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4472 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4474 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4475 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4476 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4477 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4479 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4480 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4481 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4483 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4484 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4485 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4486 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4488 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4489 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4490 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4492 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4496 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4498 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4499 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4500 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4502 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4503 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4504 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4506 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4507 a string port's buffer.
4509 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4510 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4511 function pointers which together define the current random number
4512 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4513 number library functions.
4515 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4518 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4519 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4522 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4523 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4525 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4526 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4528 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4529 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4532 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4533 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4534 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4535 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4537 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4538 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4539 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4540 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4541 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4542 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4543 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4545 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4546 by libguile and the application.
4548 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4549 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4550 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4551 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4553 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4554 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4556 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4557 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4558 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4560 ** Random number library functions
4561 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4562 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4563 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4565 The default random state is stored in:
4567 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4568 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4569 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4574 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4576 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4577 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4578 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4579 isn't a random state.
4581 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4582 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4584 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4585 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4586 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4587 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4589 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4590 Return 32 random bits.
4592 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4593 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4595 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4596 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4598 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4599 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4601 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4602 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4604 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4605 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4606 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4610 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4612 * Changes to the distribution
4614 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4615 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4616 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4619 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4620 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4621 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
4623 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
4624 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
4625 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
4626 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
4629 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
4630 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
4631 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
4633 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4635 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
4637 *** Function: batch-mode?
4639 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
4642 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
4644 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
4645 case has not been implemented.
4647 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
4648 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
4649 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
4652 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
4653 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
4655 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
4657 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4659 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
4661 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
4662 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
4665 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
4666 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
4667 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
4668 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
4671 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
4673 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
4674 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
4675 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
4676 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
4677 find those libraries.
4679 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
4680 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
4683 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
4685 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
4686 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
4687 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
4688 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
4690 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
4691 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
4692 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
4696 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
4698 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
4699 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
4700 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
4703 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
4704 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
4705 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
4706 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
4708 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
4709 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
4712 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
4713 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
4714 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
4715 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
4716 compiler where to find the libraries.
4718 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
4719 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
4720 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
4722 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
4723 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
4724 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
4725 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
4726 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
4730 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4732 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
4733 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
4734 internationalization support.
4736 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
4737 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
4738 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
4739 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
4740 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
4742 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
4743 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
4744 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
4745 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
4746 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
4748 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
4749 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
4750 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
4751 any GNU mirror site.
4753 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
4755 ** New function: add-history STRING
4756 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
4757 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
4758 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
4760 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
4762 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
4763 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
4764 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
4767 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
4768 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
4769 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
4771 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
4773 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
4776 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
4777 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
4780 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
4781 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
4782 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
4783 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
4784 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
4785 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
4787 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
4788 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
4789 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
4790 of the form mentioned above.
4792 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
4793 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
4794 returned in the special `rest' list.
4796 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
4797 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
4799 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
4801 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
4803 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
4805 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
4806 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
4807 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
4808 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
4809 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
4810 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
4811 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
4812 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
4815 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
4817 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
4819 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
4820 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
4823 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
4824 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
4825 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
4829 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
4830 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
4831 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
4832 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
4833 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
4834 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
4835 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
4836 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
4839 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
4841 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
4842 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
4843 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
4845 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
4847 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
4848 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
4850 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
4851 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
4852 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
4854 Why do we have this function?
4855 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
4856 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
4857 primitive, and display it differently, and
4858 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
4859 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
4862 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
4863 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
4866 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
4867 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
4868 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
4869 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
4871 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
4872 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
4875 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
4876 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
4878 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
4880 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
4881 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
4882 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
4883 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
4884 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
4885 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
4886 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
4889 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
4891 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
4892 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
4894 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
4895 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
4896 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
4897 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
4898 properly continue the print chain.
4900 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
4901 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
4902 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
4903 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
4904 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
4905 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
4906 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
4907 print-state, it is simply ignored.
4909 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
4910 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
4911 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
4912 safest to not check for these pairs.
4914 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
4915 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
4916 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
4917 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
4919 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
4921 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
4922 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
4924 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
4926 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
4928 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
4929 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
4930 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
4932 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
4933 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
4934 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
4936 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
4937 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
4938 the following functions and macros:
4940 Function: make-fluid
4942 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
4943 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
4944 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
4945 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
4946 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
4948 Function: fluid? OBJ
4950 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
4952 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
4953 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
4955 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
4956 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
4958 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
4960 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
4961 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
4962 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
4963 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
4964 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
4965 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
4966 modified by `with-fluids*'.
4968 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
4970 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
4971 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
4972 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
4973 should evaluate to a fluid.
4975 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
4977 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
4978 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
4979 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
4980 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
4981 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
4983 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
4986 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
4988 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
4990 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
4992 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
4995 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
4996 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
4997 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
4998 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
4999 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5002 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5003 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5004 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5006 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5007 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5008 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5010 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5011 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5012 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5013 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5015 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5016 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5017 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5018 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5020 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5021 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5022 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5023 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5025 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5026 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5027 their revealed counts set to zero.
5029 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5030 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5032 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5033 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5035 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5036 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5038 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5039 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5040 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5042 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5043 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5044 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5046 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5047 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5048 default environment inherited by child processes.
5050 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5051 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5052 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5054 The return value is unspecified.
5056 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5057 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5058 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5059 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5060 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5062 The return value is unspecified.
5064 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5065 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5073 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5074 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5077 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5080 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5081 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5082 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5084 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5085 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5086 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5087 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5090 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5091 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5093 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5094 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5095 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5096 the `environ' procedure.
5098 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5099 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5102 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5103 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5105 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5106 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5107 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5108 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5110 *** procedure: times
5111 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5112 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5113 return a selected component:
5116 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5120 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5123 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5127 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5128 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5132 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5133 terminated child processes.
5135 ** Removed: list-length
5136 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5137 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5139 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5141 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5143 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5145 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5146 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5147 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5148 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5150 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5151 extra complexity it introduces.
5153 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5154 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5156 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5157 variable to any non-empty value.
5159 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5160 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5162 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5164 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5165 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5167 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5169 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5170 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5172 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5174 ** vector handling routines
5176 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5177 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5178 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5179 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5180 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5182 ** pair and list routines
5184 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5187 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5189 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5192 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5194 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5196 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5197 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5198 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5199 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5200 site-specific initialization code.
5202 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5203 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5204 initialization processes.
5206 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5207 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5208 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5209 initialized properly.
5211 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5212 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5213 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5215 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5216 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5217 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5218 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5219 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5221 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5223 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5224 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5225 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5226 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5227 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5229 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5230 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5231 which look like this:
5234 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5236 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5237 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5240 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5241 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5244 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5246 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5247 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5248 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5250 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5251 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5252 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5253 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5254 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5256 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5257 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5259 int (*free) (SCM port);
5260 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5261 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5262 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5266 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5267 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5268 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5270 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5273 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5274 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5275 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5277 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5278 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5279 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5282 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5286 struct timeval *timeout);
5288 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5289 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5290 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5291 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5292 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5293 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5295 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5296 scm_catch_body_t body,
5298 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5301 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5302 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5303 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5304 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5305 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5306 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5308 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5310 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5313 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5314 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5315 spawning threads from application C code.
5317 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5318 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5319 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5320 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5321 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5322 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5324 ** Removed functions:
5326 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5327 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5329 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5331 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5332 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5334 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5336 ** mbstrings are now removed
5338 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5339 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5341 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5343 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5344 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5345 their new names and arguments:
5347 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5348 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5349 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5350 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5353 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5355 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5357 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5360 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5362 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5363 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5364 pass a #f arg to catch.
5366 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5368 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5369 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5372 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5373 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5374 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5375 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5376 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5377 reclaim its storage.
5379 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5380 worrying that some other function you call will call
5381 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5382 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5383 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5384 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5387 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5389 * Changes to the distribution
5391 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5392 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5395 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5396 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5398 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5399 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5401 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5403 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5404 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5405 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5407 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5409 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5410 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5411 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5412 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5413 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5414 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5416 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5417 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5418 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5421 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5422 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5423 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5424 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5426 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5427 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5428 libraries to your link command:
5430 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5431 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5432 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5433 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5435 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5436 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5437 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5439 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5441 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5442 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5445 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5447 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5448 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5449 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5450 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5451 searched is system dependent.
5453 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5455 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5457 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5459 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5460 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5462 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5464 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5465 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5466 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5467 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5468 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5471 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5473 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5474 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5475 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5476 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5477 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5479 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5481 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5482 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5484 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5486 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5487 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5488 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5491 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5493 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5494 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5495 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5496 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5498 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5499 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5501 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5503 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5504 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5506 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5508 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5509 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5517 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5519 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5520 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5521 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5522 a more informative way.
5524 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5525 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5526 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5527 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5528 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5529 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5531 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5532 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5535 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5536 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5537 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5540 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5541 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5542 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5543 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5544 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5545 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5547 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5548 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5549 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5550 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5553 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5554 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5555 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5556 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5557 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5558 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5560 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5561 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5562 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5563 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5564 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5566 *** regexp functions
5568 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5569 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5570 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5572 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5573 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5574 with SCSH regular expressions.
5576 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5577 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5578 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5579 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5581 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5582 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5583 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5584 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5586 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5587 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5588 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5589 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5590 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5591 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5593 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5594 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5595 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5596 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5597 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5599 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5601 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5602 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5603 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5604 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5606 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5607 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5608 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5610 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5611 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5613 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5616 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5617 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5618 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5620 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5621 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5622 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
5624 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
5625 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
5626 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
5627 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
5628 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
5631 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5633 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
5634 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
5635 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
5636 used when different portions of a string are passed to
5637 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
5638 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
5640 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
5641 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
5642 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
5644 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
5645 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
5648 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
5649 and replace them with the contents of another string.
5651 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
5652 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
5653 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
5654 may be one of the following arguments:
5656 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
5658 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
5660 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
5661 the regexp match is written.
5663 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
5664 following the regexp match is written.
5666 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
5667 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
5670 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
5671 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
5672 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
5673 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
5674 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
5675 which should be matched against this regular expression.
5677 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
5680 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
5681 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
5682 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
5683 written out to PORT.
5685 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
5686 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
5687 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
5688 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
5689 will return after processing a single match.
5691 *** Match Structures
5693 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
5694 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
5695 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
5696 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
5697 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
5698 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
5701 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
5702 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
5703 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
5704 information about the original target string that was matched against a
5705 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
5707 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
5708 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
5709 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
5711 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
5712 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
5713 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
5714 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
5715 number N did not match, return `#f'.
5717 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
5718 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
5720 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
5721 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
5723 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
5724 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
5726 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
5727 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
5729 **** Function: match:count MATCH
5730 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
5731 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
5732 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
5734 **** Function: match:string MATCH
5735 Return the original TARGET string.
5737 *** Backslash Escapes
5739 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
5740 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
5741 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
5742 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
5743 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
5744 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
5746 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
5747 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
5748 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
5749 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
5750 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
5751 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
5752 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
5753 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
5755 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
5756 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
5757 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
5758 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
5759 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
5760 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
5761 each match a single backslash in the target string.
5763 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
5764 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
5765 return the resulting string.
5767 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
5768 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
5769 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
5770 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
5771 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
5772 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
5773 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
5774 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
5775 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
5776 translated to the single character `*'.
5778 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
5779 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
5780 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
5781 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
5782 consecutive backslashes:
5784 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
5786 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
5787 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
5788 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
5790 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
5791 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
5792 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
5793 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
5794 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
5795 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
5797 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
5799 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
5800 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
5801 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
5802 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
5803 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
5804 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
5805 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
5806 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
5807 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
5808 cumbersome escape syntax.
5810 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5812 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5814 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5816 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
5819 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
5821 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
5823 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
5826 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
5827 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
5828 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
5829 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
5830 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
5832 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
5833 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
5834 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
5835 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
5836 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
5837 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
5838 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
5841 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
5842 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
5843 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
5846 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
5847 `force-output' on every port open for output.
5849 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
5850 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
5851 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
5852 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
5853 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
5854 installed, you can say:
5856 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
5859 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5861 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
5862 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
5863 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
5864 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
5865 new dynamic roots and threads.
5868 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
5870 * Changes to the distribution.
5872 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
5874 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
5875 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
5876 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
5877 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
5878 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
5879 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
5880 programming language. These are packaged together because the
5881 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
5883 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
5886 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
5887 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
5892 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5894 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
5895 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
5897 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
5898 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
5899 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
5900 the (command-line) function.
5901 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
5902 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
5903 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
5905 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
5906 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
5907 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
5908 command line arguments
5909 -ds do -s script at this point
5910 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
5911 -h, --help display this help and exit
5912 -v, --version display version information and exit
5913 \ read arguments from following script lines
5915 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
5916 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
5918 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5921 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5925 (main (command-line))
5927 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
5929 ekko a speckled gecko
5931 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
5932 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
5933 following list of command-line arguments:
5935 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
5937 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
5938 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
5939 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
5940 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
5941 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5943 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
5945 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
5947 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
5948 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
5951 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
5952 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
5953 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
5954 SCSH) for circumventing them.
5956 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
5957 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
5958 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
5959 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
5961 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
5965 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5969 If the user invokes this script as follows:
5971 ekko a speckled gecko
5973 Unix expands this into
5975 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
5977 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
5978 read from the second line of the script, producing:
5980 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
5982 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
5983 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5985 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
5986 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
5987 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
5988 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
5989 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
5990 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
5991 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
5992 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
5993 it only terminates the argument list.)
5994 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
5995 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
5996 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
5997 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
5998 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
5999 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6000 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6001 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6003 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6005 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6006 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6007 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6008 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6009 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6011 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6012 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6013 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6015 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6017 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6018 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6019 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6020 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6023 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6024 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6025 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6027 * Changes to Scheme functions
6029 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6030 and disabled by default.
6032 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6033 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6034 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6035 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6037 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6039 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6041 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6042 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6044 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6045 (read-set! keywords #f)
6047 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6048 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6049 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6052 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6053 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6054 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6057 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6058 support for Scheme functions.
6060 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6061 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6062 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6063 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6066 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6067 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6068 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6071 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6072 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6073 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6076 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6077 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6078 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6079 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6080 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6081 display the result as a prompt.
6082 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6084 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6085 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6086 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6089 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6090 procedure of zero arguments.
6092 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6093 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6094 argument is bound in the current module.
6096 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6097 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6098 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6099 public bindings into the current module.
6101 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6102 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6104 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6105 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6107 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6108 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6110 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6111 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6113 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6114 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6116 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6117 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6118 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6119 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6120 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6122 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6123 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6124 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6125 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6127 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6130 ** Changes to I/O functions
6132 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6133 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6134 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6136 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6137 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6138 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6140 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6141 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6143 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6144 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6145 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6146 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6148 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6150 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6151 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6153 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6154 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6155 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6156 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6157 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6160 'trim omit delimiter from result
6161 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6162 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6163 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6165 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6167 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6168 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6170 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6171 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6172 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6173 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6174 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6176 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6177 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6178 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6180 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6181 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6182 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6183 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6185 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6186 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6188 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6189 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6191 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6193 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6194 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6195 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6196 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6197 a delimiting character.
6198 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6200 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6201 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6202 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6203 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6204 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6205 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6207 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6208 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6210 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6211 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6212 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6214 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6215 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6216 the array to read and write.
6218 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6219 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6222 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6224 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6227 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6228 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6229 Values for COMMAND are:
6231 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6232 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6233 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6234 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6235 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6236 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6237 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6238 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6240 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6242 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6243 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6244 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6245 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6246 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6247 corresponding return set will be the same.
6249 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6252 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6253 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6254 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6255 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6256 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6257 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6258 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6259 special file being created.
6261 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6262 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6264 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6265 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6266 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6267 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6268 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6269 and originating address.
6271 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6272 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6273 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6275 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6278 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6279 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6282 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6283 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6284 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6285 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6286 this function returns #f.
6288 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6289 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6290 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6293 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6294 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6295 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6298 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6299 a valid STATUS value.
6301 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6303 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6304 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6306 Component Accessor Setter
6307 ========================= ============ ============
6308 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6309 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6310 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6311 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6312 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6313 year tm:year set-tm:year
6314 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6315 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6316 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6317 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6318 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6320 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6321 describing the host system:
6324 ============================================== ================
6325 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6326 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6327 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6328 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6329 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6331 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6332 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6333 system's user database:
6336 ====================== =================
6337 user name passwd:name
6338 user password passwd:passwd
6341 real name passwd:gecos
6342 home directory passwd:dir
6343 shell program passwd:shell
6345 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6346 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6347 system's group database:
6350 ======================= ============
6351 group name group:name
6352 group password group:passwd
6354 group members group:mem
6356 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6357 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6361 ========================= ===============
6362 official name of host hostent:name
6363 alias list hostent:aliases
6364 host address type hostent:addrtype
6365 length of address hostent:length
6366 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6368 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6369 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6373 ========================= ===============
6374 official name of net netent:name
6375 alias list netent:aliases
6376 net number type netent:addrtype
6377 net number netent:net
6379 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6380 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6384 ========================= ===============
6385 official protocol name protoent:name
6386 alias list protoent:aliases
6387 protocol number protoent:proto
6389 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6390 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6394 ========================= ===============
6395 official service name servent:name
6396 alias list servent:aliases
6397 port number servent:port
6398 protocol to use servent:proto
6400 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6401 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6404 ======================================== ===============
6405 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6406 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6407 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6408 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6410 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6411 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6412 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6414 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6415 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6417 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6418 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6420 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6421 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6423 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6425 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6427 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6428 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6429 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6431 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6432 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6433 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6434 return the remaining characters as a string.
6436 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6437 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6438 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6440 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6442 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6444 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6447 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6450 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6451 and returns the array
6453 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6454 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6455 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6457 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6459 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6460 symbol's value from C code:
6462 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6463 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6464 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6465 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6467 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6468 without assigning them a value.
6470 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6471 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6472 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6474 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6475 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6476 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6478 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6479 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6481 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6482 doesn't actually care about that.
6484 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6485 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6486 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6488 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6489 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6490 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6491 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6492 which we have just created and initialized.
6494 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6495 should one occur. We call it like this:
6496 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6498 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6499 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6500 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6501 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6502 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6503 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6506 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6507 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6508 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6509 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6510 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6511 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6512 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6515 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6516 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6517 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6518 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6519 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6522 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6523 scm_internal_catch, except:
6525 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6526 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6527 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6528 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6531 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6532 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6533 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6535 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6536 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6537 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6538 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6541 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6542 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6543 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6545 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6546 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6547 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6548 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6549 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6551 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6552 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6553 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6555 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6556 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6557 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6559 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6560 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6562 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6563 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6564 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6567 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6568 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6569 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6570 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6571 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6572 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6573 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6576 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6577 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6579 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6580 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6581 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6582 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6583 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6586 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6587 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6589 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6590 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6593 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6594 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6596 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6599 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6600 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6601 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6602 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6603 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6604 given the following arguments:
6606 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6608 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6610 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6612 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6615 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6616 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6617 command-line arguments.
6619 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6620 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6621 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6622 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
6623 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
6624 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
6627 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6630 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
6631 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
6633 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
6634 rearranged slightly. They are now:
6636 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6637 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6638 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
6639 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
6641 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6642 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6644 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6645 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
6646 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6647 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
6649 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6650 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6652 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
6653 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
6655 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
6657 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
6658 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
6659 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
6662 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
6663 returns a port instead of an FD object.
6665 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
6666 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
6671 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
6674 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
6676 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
6677 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
6678 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
6679 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
6681 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
6683 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
6685 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
6686 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
6687 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
6688 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
6689 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
6690 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
6691 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
6692 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
6693 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
6694 for more information.
6696 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
6697 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
6699 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
6700 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
6701 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
6702 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
6703 following two lines at the top of the file:
6705 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6708 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
6709 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
6710 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
6712 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
6714 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6716 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
6719 (display (car args))
6720 (if (pair? (cdr args))
6722 (loop (cdr args)))))
6725 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
6726 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
6727 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
6728 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
6729 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
6730 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
6734 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
6737 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
6740 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
6742 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
6743 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
6744 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
6745 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
6746 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
6749 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
6750 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
6751 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
6752 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
6753 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
6756 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
6759 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
6760 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
6761 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
6764 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
6765 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
6766 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
6768 to see a backtrace, and
6769 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
6770 to see them by default.
6774 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
6776 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
6778 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
6779 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
6782 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
6783 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
6784 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
6785 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
6788 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
6789 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
6790 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
6791 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
6792 functions which inspired them.
6794 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
6795 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
6799 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
6801 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
6803 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
6804 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
6807 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
6808 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
6809 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
6811 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
6812 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
6813 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
6814 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
6815 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
6817 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
6819 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
6820 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
6821 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
6824 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
6827 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
6829 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
6830 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
6831 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
6832 above should serve their purposes.
6834 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
6835 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
6836 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
6837 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
6839 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
6842 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
6843 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
6844 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
6845 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
6847 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
6848 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
6849 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
6850 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
6852 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
6853 for the `read' function.
6856 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
6857 to that of `integer?'.
6859 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
6860 use the R4RS names for these functions.
6862 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
6863 it simply returns the object's property list.
6865 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
6866 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
6867 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
6868 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
6870 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
6872 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
6875 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
6877 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
6878 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
6880 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
6882 void (*main_func) (),
6885 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
6886 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
6887 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
6888 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
6889 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
6891 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
6892 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
6893 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
6894 know which arguments have been processed.
6896 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
6897 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
6898 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
6899 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
6900 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
6902 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
6903 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
6904 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
6905 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
6906 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
6907 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
6908 people from making that mistake.
6910 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
6911 convenient ways to override these when desired.
6913 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
6915 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
6919 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
6922 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
6923 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
6924 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
6925 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
6928 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
6929 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
6930 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
6931 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
6934 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
6935 have been added to the Guile library.
6937 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
6938 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
6939 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
6942 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
6943 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
6944 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
6946 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
6947 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
6948 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
6949 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
6950 argument from the list.
6953 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
6956 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
6957 null-terminated string, and returns it.
6959 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
6960 to a Scheme port object.
6962 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
6963 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
6968 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
6970 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
6971 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
6972 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
6973 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
6974 code as a special datatype.
6976 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
6977 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
6978 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
6979 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
6980 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
6983 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
6984 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
6985 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
6986 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
6987 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
6989 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
6992 Copyright information:
6994 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
6996 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
6997 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
6998 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
6999 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7001 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7002 of this document, or of portions of it,
7003 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7004 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7009 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"