1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Each release reports the NEWS in the following sections:
9 * Changes to the distribution
10 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
11 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
12 * Changes to the C interface
15 Changes since the 1.6.x series:
17 * Changes to the distribution
19 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
21 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
23 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
25 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
27 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
29 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
32 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
34 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
35 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
36 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
37 so the current effective-version is "1.7". The effective version
38 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
39 items like the versioned share directory name
40 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.7.
42 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
43 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
44 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
45 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
46 with each micro release during a stable series.
48 ** Thread implementation has changed.
50 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
51 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
52 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
53 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
54 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
57 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
58 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
59 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
60 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
63 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
64 in which case "null" threads are used.
66 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
67 "Blocking", and others.
69 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
71 This is a milder form of deprecation.
73 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
74 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
75 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
76 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
77 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
79 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
80 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
82 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
84 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
85 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
87 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
89 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when
90 you don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but
91 where you have some section(s) of code which you consider can run
92 in parallel to other sections.
94 ### move rest to manual
96 They "flag" (with dynamic extent) sections of code to be of
97 "serial" or "parallel" nature and have the single effect of
98 preventing a serial section from being run in parallel with any
99 serial section (including itself).
101 Both serialize and parallelize can be nested. If so, the
102 inner-most construct is in effect.
104 NOTE 1: A serial section can run in parallel with a parallel
107 NOTE 2: If a serial section S is "interrupted" by a parallel
108 section P in the following manner: S = S1 P S2, S2 is not
109 guaranteed to be resumed by the same thread that previously
112 WARNING: Spawning new threads within a serial section have
113 undefined effects. It is OK, though, to spawn threads in unflagged
114 sections of code where neither serialize or parallelize is in
117 A typical usage is when Guile is used as scripting language in some
118 application doing heavy computations. If each thread is
119 encapsulated with a serialize form, you can then put a parallelize
120 form around the code performing the heavy computations (typically a
121 C code primitive), enabling the computations to run in parallel
122 while the scripting code runs single-threadedly.
124 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
126 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
127 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
128 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
129 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
132 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
134 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
135 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
136 parameters without currying.
138 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
140 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
141 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
143 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
144 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
147 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
148 with a renaming import, for example.
150 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
152 The official version is good enough now.
154 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
156 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
157 provided. Use 'make html'.
159 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
161 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
164 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
166 ** New command line option `-L'.
168 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
170 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
172 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
173 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
175 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
177 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
178 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
180 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
182 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
183 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
186 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
189 (define-module (demo)
193 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
196 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
198 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
200 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
201 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
202 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
204 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
206 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
207 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
209 ** New function hashx-remove!
211 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
213 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
214 barriers and dynamic states.
216 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
217 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
218 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
221 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
222 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
223 Barriers" in the manual.
225 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
226 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
228 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
230 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
231 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
232 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
235 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
237 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
238 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
240 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
241 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
242 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform vectors.
243 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
244 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
246 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
247 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
248 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
250 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
251 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
252 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
255 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
256 substrings and read-only strings.
258 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
259 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
262 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
264 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
273 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
274 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
275 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
277 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
278 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
279 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
282 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
283 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
286 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
288 See the manual for details.
290 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
292 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
295 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
297 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
298 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
299 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
300 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
302 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
303 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
304 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
307 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
309 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
310 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
321 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
325 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
330 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
334 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
338 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
341 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
342 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
343 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
344 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
346 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
347 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
350 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
353 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
357 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
359 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
360 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
361 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
364 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
367 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
369 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
372 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
373 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
381 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
382 has been detected is to
384 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
385 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
386 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
389 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
392 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
394 to your .guile init file.
396 ### move rest to manual
398 The syntax for the :duplicates option is:
400 :duplicates HANDLER-NAME | (HANDLER1-NAME HANDLER2-NAME ...)
402 Specifying multiple handlers is useful since some handlers (such as
403 replace) can defer conflict resolution to others. Each handler is
404 tried until a binding is selected.
406 Currently available duplicates handlers are:
408 check report an error for bindings with a common name
409 warn issue a warning for bindings with a common name
410 replace replace bindings which have an imported replacement
411 warn-override-core issue a warning for imports which override core bindings
412 and accept the override
413 first select the first encountered binding (override)
414 last select the last encountered binding (override)
416 These two are provided by the (oop goops) module:
418 merge-generics merge generic functions with a common name
419 into an <extended-generic>
420 merge-accessors merge accessors with a common name
422 The default duplicates handler is:
424 (replace warn-override-core warn last)
426 A recommended handler (which is likely to correspond to future Guile
427 behavior) can be installed with:
429 (default-duplicate-binding-handler '(replace warn-override-core check))
431 ** New define-module option: :replace
433 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
436 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
437 for the core binding `format'.
439 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
441 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
442 a prefix to all imported bindings.
445 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
447 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
450 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
452 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
453 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
454 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
456 ### move the rest to the manual
458 It is sometimes tempting to use GOOPS accessors with short names.
459 For example, it is tempting to use the name `x' for the x-coordinate
462 Assume that we work with a graphical package which needs to use two
463 independent vector packages for 2D and 3D vectors respectively. If
464 both packages export `x' we will encounter a name collision.
466 This can now be resolved automagically with the duplicates handler
467 `merge-generics' which gives the module system license to merge all
468 generic functions sharing a common name:
470 (define-module (math 2D-vectors)
471 :use-module (oop goops)
474 (define-module (math 3D-vectors)
475 :use-module (oop goops)
478 (define-module (my-module)
479 :use-module (math 2D-vectors)
480 :use-module (math 3D-vectors)
481 :duplicates merge-generics)
483 x in (my-module) will now share methods with x in both imported
486 There will, in fact, now be three distinct generic functions named
487 `x': x in (2D-vectors), x in (3D-vectors), and x in (my-module). The
488 last function will be an <extended-generic>, extending the previous
491 Let's call the imported generic functions the "ancestor functions". x
492 in (my-module) is, in turn, a "descendant function" of the imported
493 functions, extending its ancestors.
495 For any generic function G, the applicable methods are selected from
496 the union of the methods of the descendant functions, the methods of G
497 itself and the methods of the ancestor functions.
499 This, ancestor functions share methods with their descendants and vice
500 versa. This implies that x in (math 2D-vectors) can will share the
501 methods of x in (my-module) and vice versa, while x in (math 2D-vectors)
502 doesn't share the methods of x in (math 3D-vectors), thus preserving
505 Sharing is dynamic, so that adding new methods to a descendant implies
506 adding it to the ancestor.
508 If duplicates checking is desired in the above example, the following
509 form of the :duplicates option can be used instead:
511 :duplicates (merge-generics check)
513 ** New function: effective-version
515 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
516 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
517 to the distribution" above.
519 ** New feature, 'futures': future, make-future, future-ref
521 Futures are like promises, but begin execution immediately in a new
522 thread. See the "Futures" section in the reference manual.
524 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
526 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
527 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
529 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
531 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
532 instead if blocking and indicate failure.
534 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
536 The funtion 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
537 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
540 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
542 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
544 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
546 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
547 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
548 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
551 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
552 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
553 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
556 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
557 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
559 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
560 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
561 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
564 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
566 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
567 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
570 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
571 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
573 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
574 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
575 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
576 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
577 level for the current thread.
579 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
581 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
583 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
584 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
587 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
589 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
591 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
594 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
596 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
599 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
600 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
601 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
603 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
604 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
605 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
606 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
617 ERROR: Numerical overflow
619 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
622 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
624 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
625 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
626 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
637 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
639 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
640 them is also done exactly, of course:
645 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
648 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
649 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
651 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
653 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
654 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
655 equal to a floating point number. For example:
657 (inexact->exact 1.234)
658 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
660 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitely:
662 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
665 ** New function 'rationalize'.
667 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
668 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
670 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
673 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
674 result when both its arguments are exact.
676 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
678 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
679 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
680 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
682 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
684 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
685 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
686 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
688 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
691 ** pretty-print has more options.
693 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
694 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
695 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
697 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
699 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
700 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
701 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
703 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
705 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
706 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
708 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
710 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
711 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
714 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
716 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
717 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
718 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
719 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
720 without the soft port blocking.
722 ** New debugging feature: breakpoints.
724 Guile now has breakpoints. For details see the `Debugging Features'
725 chapter in the reference manual.
727 ** Deprecated: undefine
729 There is no replacement for undefine.
731 * The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
732 have been discouraged.
734 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
735 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
736 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
739 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
742 * Changes to the C interface
744 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
745 take a 'delete' function argument.
747 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
748 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
750 This is an incompatible change.
752 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
754 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
755 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
756 --disable-deprecated.
758 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
760 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
761 Scheme values has been added.
763 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
764 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
769 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
770 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
772 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
774 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
775 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
778 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
780 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
781 scm_from_int for ints.
783 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
784 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
785 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
787 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
789 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
790 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
791 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
794 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
796 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
798 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
800 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
801 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
802 following alternatives.
804 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
805 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
806 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
807 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
809 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
810 do the validating for you.
812 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
813 have been discouraged.
815 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
816 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
819 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
821 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
822 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
825 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
827 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
830 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
833 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
835 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
836 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
838 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
839 scm_truncate_number should have.
841 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
842 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
844 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
847 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
848 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
849 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
851 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
852 easier to use from C.
854 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
855 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
857 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
858 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
859 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
862 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
863 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
864 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
865 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
868 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
869 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
870 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
871 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
872 and is thus quite efficient.
874 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
876 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
877 about the character encoding.
879 Replace according to the following table:
881 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
882 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
883 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
884 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
885 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
886 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
887 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
888 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
889 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
891 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
892 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
894 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
896 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
897 now also available to C code.
899 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
901 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
902 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
903 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
905 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
908 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
910 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
911 unceremoniously removed.
913 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
914 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
915 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
917 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
918 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
919 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
920 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
921 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
922 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
925 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
927 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
928 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
929 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
930 manual for more details.
932 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
933 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
935 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
936 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
937 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
939 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
941 Migrate according to the following table:
943 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
944 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
945 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
946 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
947 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
948 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
949 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
951 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
952 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
953 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
954 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
955 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
956 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
957 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
959 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
961 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
962 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
964 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
965 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
966 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
967 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
969 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
971 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
972 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
973 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
975 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
976 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
978 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
979 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
980 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
981 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
983 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
985 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
986 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
987 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
988 prevent a potential memory leak:
997 mem = scm_malloc (100);
998 scm_frame_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY);
1000 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
1001 SCM_FRAME_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
1008 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY, MEM will be freed by
1009 SCM_FRAME_END as well.
1013 For full documentation, see the node "Frames" in the manual.
1015 ** New function scm_frame_free
1017 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a frame is left.
1018 Thus the call to scm_frame_unwind_handler above could be replaced with
1019 simply scm_frame_free (mem).
1021 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1022 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1024 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1026 ** New functions scm_frame_block_asyncs and scm_frame_unblock_asyncs
1028 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
1029 scm_frame_block_asyncs in a 'frame' (see above). Likewise for
1030 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_frame_unblock_asyncs.
1032 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
1033 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
1035 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
1036 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
1037 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a frame that locks a mutex,
1038 blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the manual.
1040 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1042 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1043 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1044 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1046 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
1048 C code can now use scm_frame_current_<foo>_port in a 'frame' (see
1049 above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
1051 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
1053 C code can now use scm_frame_fluid in a 'frame' (see
1054 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
1056 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
1058 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
1059 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
1060 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
1062 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
1064 You should not have used them.
1066 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
1068 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
1069 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
1071 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
1073 This macro is not intended for public use.
1075 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
1077 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
1079 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
1081 Use scm_is_real instead.
1083 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1085 Use scm_is_complex instead.
1087 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
1089 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
1090 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
1092 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
1093 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
1095 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
1096 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
1098 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1100 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1103 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1105 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1106 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1107 to the distribution" above.
1109 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1111 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1112 arguments are now passed directly:
1114 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1116 This is an incompatible change.
1118 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1120 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1121 function in the init section.
1123 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1125 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1127 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1128 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1129 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1130 stays roughly constant.
1132 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1133 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1134 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1135 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1136 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1139 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1140 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1141 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1142 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1144 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
1145 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
1146 objects for every type.
1149 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1151 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1153 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1155 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1156 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1157 initializes a new cell (see below).
1159 ** New functions for memory management
1161 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1162 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1163 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1164 cause aborts in long running programs.
1166 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1167 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1169 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1170 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1171 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1172 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1173 details and for upgrading instructions.
1175 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1176 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1177 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1179 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1181 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1182 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1183 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1184 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1185 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1187 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1188 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1189 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1191 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1192 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1194 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1196 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1197 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1198 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1199 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1200 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1202 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1204 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1207 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1209 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1211 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1213 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1214 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1216 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1218 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1219 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1221 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
1222 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
1224 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
1226 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
1228 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
1229 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
1230 blocking it is not well defined.
1232 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1234 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1235 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1236 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1237 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1238 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1239 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1240 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1241 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1242 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1243 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1244 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1245 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1246 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1247 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1248 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1249 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1250 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1251 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1252 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1253 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1254 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1255 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1256 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1257 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1258 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1259 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1260 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1261 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1262 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1263 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1264 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1267 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1269 * Changes to the distribution
1271 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1273 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1275 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1276 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1277 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1278 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1279 indicate major changes in Guile.
1281 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1282 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1283 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1284 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1286 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1287 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1288 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1289 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1290 micro version number.
1292 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1294 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1296 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1297 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1299 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1301 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1302 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1303 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1305 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1307 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1308 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1309 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1312 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1314 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1317 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1319 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1320 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1322 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1324 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1325 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1328 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1330 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1333 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1336 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1338 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1340 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1341 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1342 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1344 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1346 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1348 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1351 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1353 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1355 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1357 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1358 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1359 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1361 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1363 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1365 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1366 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1375 See README there for more info.
1377 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1378 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1381 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1383 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1385 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1387 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1388 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1389 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1391 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1393 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1394 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1395 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1397 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1398 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1400 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1403 (oop goops describe)
1405 (oop goops active-slot)
1406 (oop goops composite-slot)
1408 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1409 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1410 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1412 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1414 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1415 in the default environment:
1417 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1418 %read-line write-line
1420 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1421 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1423 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1425 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1428 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1429 can be used for similar functionality.
1431 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1433 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1434 it defines two procedures:
1436 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1438 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1439 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1440 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1443 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1445 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1446 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1447 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1448 write large strings.
1450 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1452 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1453 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1455 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1457 for complete documentation.
1459 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1461 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1462 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1463 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1464 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1466 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1467 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1471 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1472 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1473 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1476 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1479 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1480 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1482 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1483 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1486 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1489 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1491 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1493 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1495 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1497 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1498 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1499 Scheme programs easier.
1501 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1502 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1503 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1504 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1505 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1508 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1509 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1511 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1514 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1516 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1517 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1518 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1521 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1523 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1525 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1526 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1527 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1528 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1529 was also ASCII, for example.
1531 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1533 tag - no replacement.
1534 fseek - replaced by seek.
1535 list* - replaced by cons*.
1537 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1541 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1542 (define m (make-safe-module))
1543 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1544 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1545 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1547 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1549 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1550 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1551 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1553 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1555 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1556 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1557 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1558 from the issues related to the module system.
1560 *** New function: load-extension
1562 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1564 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1566 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1567 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1568 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1570 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1572 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1573 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1574 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1575 support dynamic linking).
1577 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1579 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1580 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1581 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1582 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1585 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1586 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1587 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1588 library and initialize it explicitely.
1590 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1591 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1593 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1595 (define-module (foo bar))
1597 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1599 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1601 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1602 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1604 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1605 (null-environment 5)
1606 (interaction-environment)
1612 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1614 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1615 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1616 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1617 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1619 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1620 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1621 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1622 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1623 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1624 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1625 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1626 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1627 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1628 one eval to the next.
1630 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1631 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1632 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1633 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1634 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1636 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1637 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1638 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1639 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1640 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1641 used in a lexical environment.
1643 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1644 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1645 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1646 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1647 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1648 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1650 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1652 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1653 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1654 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1655 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1656 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1658 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1659 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1660 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1662 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1663 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1665 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1666 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1667 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1669 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1670 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1672 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1673 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1674 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1675 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1678 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1679 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1680 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1681 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1683 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1684 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1685 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1687 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1688 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1689 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1690 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1691 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1693 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1695 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1696 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1697 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1699 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1700 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1701 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1703 See manual for more info.
1705 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1707 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1708 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1709 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1711 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1713 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1714 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1715 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1717 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1718 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1719 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1720 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1722 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1724 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1725 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1727 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1728 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1729 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1730 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1731 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1734 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1735 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1736 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1737 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1738 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1739 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1741 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1742 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1743 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1744 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1745 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1747 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1748 objects are usually permanent.
1750 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1751 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1753 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1755 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1756 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1759 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1763 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1768 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1770 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1771 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1772 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1773 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1775 ** New function `make-object-property'
1777 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
1778 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
1782 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
1783 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
1787 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
1788 source properties eventually.
1790 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
1792 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
1793 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
1794 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
1796 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
1797 will be removed in the next release.
1799 ** New define-module option: pure
1801 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
1806 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
1809 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
1811 Export names NAME1 ...
1813 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
1814 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
1818 (define-module (foo)
1820 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
1823 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
1828 ** New function: object->string OBJ
1830 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
1832 ** New function: port? X
1834 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
1835 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
1837 ** New function: file-port?
1839 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
1841 ** New function: port-for-each proc
1843 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
1844 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
1845 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
1846 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
1847 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
1849 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
1851 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
1852 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
1853 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
1854 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
1855 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
1858 ** New function: close-fdes fd
1860 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
1861 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
1862 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
1863 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
1866 ** New function: crypt password salt
1868 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
1871 ** New function: chroot path
1873 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
1875 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
1877 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
1880 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
1882 Get or set the priority of the running process.
1884 ** New function: getpass prompt
1886 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
1889 ** New function: flock file operation
1891 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
1893 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
1895 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
1898 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
1900 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
1901 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
1902 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
1903 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
1904 of the temporary file.
1906 ** New function: open-input-string string
1908 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
1909 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
1910 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
1912 ** New function: open-output-string
1914 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
1915 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
1917 ** New function: get-output-string
1919 Return the contents of an output string port.
1921 ** New function: identity
1923 Return the argument.
1925 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
1926 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
1928 ** New function: inet-pton family address
1930 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
1931 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
1932 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1935 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
1936 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
1938 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
1940 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
1941 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
1942 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1945 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
1946 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
1947 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
1951 Use `identity' instead.
1957 ** Deprecated: return-it
1961 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
1963 Use `string-length' instead.
1965 ** Deprecated: flags
1967 Use `logior' instead.
1969 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
1971 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
1972 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
1973 port-for-each is more flexible.
1975 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
1976 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
1977 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
1979 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
1981 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
1983 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
1985 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
1987 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
1989 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
1990 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
1992 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
1993 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
1995 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
1996 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
1998 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
2000 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
2001 Removed function: builtin-bindings
2003 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
2004 Use module system operations for all variables.
2006 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
2008 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
2011 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
2013 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
2014 The following bugs have been fixed:
2016 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
2017 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
2020 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
2021 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
2022 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
2024 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
2025 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
2027 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
2028 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
2031 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
2032 The expansion used to be like so:
2034 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
2036 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
2038 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
2040 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
2041 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
2043 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
2045 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
2046 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
2047 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2051 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2052 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2054 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2059 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2060 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2062 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2063 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2064 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2066 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2069 * Changes to the C interface
2071 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2073 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2074 with "_t". What a concept.
2076 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2078 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2080 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2084 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2085 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2087 *** C Functions removed
2089 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2090 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2091 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2092 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2093 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2094 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2095 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2097 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2099 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2101 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2103 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2105 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2106 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2108 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2110 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2113 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2115 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2117 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2119 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2120 Evaluation" in the manual.
2122 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2124 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2125 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2127 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2129 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2130 Constructors" in the manual.
2132 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2134 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2135 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2137 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2139 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2141 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2142 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2143 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2145 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2147 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2149 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2150 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2151 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2154 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2156 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2158 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2159 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2161 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2163 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2164 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2165 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2166 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2168 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2169 scm_primitive_property_ref
2170 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2171 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2173 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2174 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2176 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2178 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2179 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2180 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2181 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2183 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2185 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2186 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2187 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2188 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2189 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2190 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2191 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2193 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2194 scm_remember_upto_here
2196 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2198 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2200 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2201 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2203 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2205 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2207 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2209 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2211 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2213 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2214 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2215 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2216 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2217 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2218 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2220 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2222 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2224 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2225 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2226 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2228 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2230 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2231 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2232 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2234 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2236 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2237 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2240 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2243 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2244 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2247 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2249 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2251 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2253 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2255 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2257 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2259 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2260 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2261 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2262 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2263 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2264 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2265 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2266 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2267 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2268 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2269 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2270 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2271 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2272 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2273 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2275 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2276 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2277 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2278 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2279 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2280 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2281 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2282 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2283 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2284 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2285 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2286 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2287 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2288 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2289 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2290 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2291 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2292 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2293 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2294 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2295 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2296 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2297 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2298 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2299 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2300 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2301 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2302 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2303 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2305 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2307 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2309 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2310 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2312 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2314 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2316 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2318 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2320 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2322 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2324 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2326 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2328 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2331 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2332 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2334 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2336 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2338 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2340 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2342 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2344 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2346 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2348 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2351 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2353 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2355 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2357 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2358 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2360 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2361 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2363 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2365 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2366 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2367 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2369 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2371 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2373 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2374 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2376 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2377 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2378 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2379 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2381 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2382 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2383 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2385 Use the new ones from above instead.
2387 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2389 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2390 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2391 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2393 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2394 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2396 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2397 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2400 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2401 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2403 Use the new functions instead.
2405 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2408 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2410 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2412 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2415 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2417 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2420 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2422 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2425 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2426 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2427 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2429 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2431 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2432 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2434 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2435 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2436 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2437 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2440 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2442 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2443 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2444 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2445 inexact for an exact.
2447 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2448 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2449 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2452 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2453 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2454 accept an inexact argument.
2456 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2457 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2459 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2462 ** New number validation macros:
2463 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2467 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2469 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2470 scm_unprotect_object.
2472 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2474 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2476 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2479 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2481 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2485 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2487 * Changes to the distribution
2489 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2491 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2492 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2493 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2494 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2495 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2496 obtain these programs.
2497 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2498 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2500 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2501 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2502 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2503 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2504 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2506 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2507 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2508 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2509 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2513 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2516 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2517 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2518 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2519 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2521 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2523 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2525 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2526 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2528 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2529 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2531 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2532 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2534 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2535 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2536 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2537 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2539 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2541 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2545 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2546 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2548 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2550 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2551 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2553 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2554 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2555 number of objects of that kind.
2557 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2559 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2560 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2561 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2562 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2563 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2565 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2567 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2569 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2571 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2574 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2576 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2578 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2580 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2582 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2584 ** New command line option --debug
2586 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2588 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2590 ** New help facility
2592 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2593 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2594 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2595 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2596 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2597 (help) gives this text
2599 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2600 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2602 Examples: (help help)
2604 (help "output-string")
2606 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2608 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2610 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2611 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2614 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2615 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2616 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2619 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2620 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2621 use absolute filenames when possible.
2623 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2624 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2625 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2628 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2630 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2631 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2632 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2633 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2635 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2637 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2639 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2640 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2641 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2643 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2644 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2645 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2647 (read-enable 'positions)
2648 (debug-enable 'debug)
2650 ** Backtraces in scripts
2652 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2656 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2658 at the top of the script.
2660 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2661 The second enables backtraces.)
2663 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2665 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2666 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2667 substantially faster than before.
2669 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2670 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2672 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2673 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2675 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2677 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2678 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2679 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2681 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2682 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2683 when this hook is run in the future.
2685 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2686 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2688 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2690 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2691 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2694 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2695 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2696 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2698 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2699 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2701 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2702 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2704 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2705 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2706 in order not to need further allocation.)
2708 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2711 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2712 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2713 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2714 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2716 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2718 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2721 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2723 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2726 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2727 GC in percent of total heap size
2730 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2731 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2733 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2735 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2736 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2738 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2740 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2741 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2743 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2745 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2746 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2750 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2751 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2753 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2755 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2757 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2759 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2761 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2763 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2764 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2766 (simple-format port message . args)
2767 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2768 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2769 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2770 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2771 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2772 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2773 Does not add a trailing newline."
2775 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
2777 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
2778 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
2780 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
2781 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
2783 ** Deprecated: list*
2785 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
2787 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
2789 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
2790 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
2792 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
2793 is returned as result.
2795 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
2797 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
2799 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
2801 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
2802 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
2805 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
2807 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
2809 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
2810 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
2812 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2814 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
2816 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
2818 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2820 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
2822 Thanks to Greg Badros!
2824 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2826 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2827 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
2828 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
2830 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
2833 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
2835 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
2836 the readability of argument checking.
2838 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
2840 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
2842 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
2844 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
2845 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
2846 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
2847 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
2848 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
2849 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
2850 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
2852 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
2854 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
2856 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
2857 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
2859 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
2861 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
2862 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
2865 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
2867 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
2868 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
2869 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
2871 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
2872 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
2873 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
2875 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
2876 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
2877 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
2878 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
2879 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
2880 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
2881 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
2883 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
2884 scm_end_input (object);
2885 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
2886 ptob->flush (object);
2888 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
2889 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
2892 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
2894 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
2896 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
2897 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
2898 removed in a future version.
2900 ** The format of error message strings has changed
2902 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
2903 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
2904 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
2905 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
2907 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
2908 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
2910 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
2913 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
2915 in your configure.in.
2917 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
2922 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
2928 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
2930 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
2934 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
2935 (define make-message string-append)
2937 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
2939 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
2943 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
2948 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
2952 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
2954 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
2955 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
2957 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
2959 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
2960 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
2961 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
2962 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
2963 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
2964 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
2966 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
2967 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
2968 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
2970 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
2971 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
2972 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
2975 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
2976 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
2977 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
2978 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
2979 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
2981 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
2982 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
2983 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
2984 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
2985 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
2986 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
2987 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
2989 Destructors are not yet implemented.
2991 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
2992 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
2993 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
2995 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
2996 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
2997 KEY in the calling thread.
2999 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
3000 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
3001 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
3002 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
3003 associated with the key.
3005 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
3007 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
3008 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
3010 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
3012 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
3013 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
3014 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
3016 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
3018 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
3019 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
3021 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
3023 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
3025 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
3026 returned is undefined.
3028 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
3029 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
3030 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
3032 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
3033 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
3034 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
3036 ** New C level GC hooks
3038 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
3040 scm_before_gc_c_hook
3043 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
3044 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
3045 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
3047 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3048 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3049 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3051 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3052 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3055 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3057 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3058 allocation parameters
3060 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3061 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3062 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3066 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3067 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3068 scm_default_max_segment_size
3070 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3072 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3073 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3075 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3077 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3078 object and count on the object being protected until
3079 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3081 The functions also have better time complexity.
3083 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3084 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3085 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3086 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3087 are no longer needed.
3089 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3091 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3092 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3093 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3094 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3096 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3098 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3100 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3102 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3103 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3104 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3105 until this issue has been settled.
3107 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3109 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3111 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3114 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3116 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3118 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3119 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3120 descriptors were checked.
3122 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3123 atomically written to a pipe.
3125 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3126 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3127 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3128 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3129 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3130 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3131 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3134 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3135 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3136 is changed without calling tzset.
3138 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3140 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3141 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3142 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3144 (define write-network-long
3145 (lambda (value port)
3146 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3147 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3148 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3150 (define read-network-long
3152 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3153 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3154 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3156 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3157 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3159 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3160 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3161 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3162 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3164 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3165 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3166 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3167 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3171 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3173 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3177 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3178 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3179 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3185 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3186 for a description of available commands.
3188 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3189 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3190 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3192 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3194 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3195 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3197 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3199 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3201 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3202 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3203 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3204 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3205 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3206 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3209 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3211 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3212 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3213 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3214 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3216 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3217 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3219 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3221 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3223 ** Readline support has changed again.
3225 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3226 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3227 to activate readline is now
3229 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3232 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3234 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3235 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3236 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3239 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3240 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3241 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3244 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3245 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3246 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3247 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3248 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3249 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3251 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3252 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3254 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3256 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3257 object it receives is the same string passed to
3258 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3259 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3260 string, not the suffix.
3262 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3263 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3264 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3266 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3268 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3269 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3270 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3271 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3274 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3276 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3278 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3279 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3280 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3281 appear from left to right.
3283 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3286 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3288 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3289 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3291 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3295 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3297 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3299 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3301 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3302 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3303 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3305 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3307 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3309 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3311 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3314 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3316 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3317 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3318 mentioning it here anyway.
3320 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3322 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3323 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3324 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3325 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3328 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3330 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3332 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3334 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3335 otherwise return #f.
3337 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3339 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3340 returned by `opendir'.
3342 ** New function: using-readline?
3344 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3346 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3348 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3349 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3351 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3353 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3355 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3356 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3357 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3359 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3361 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3362 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3364 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3366 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3367 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3368 documentation slots are not yet used.
3370 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3372 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3373 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3374 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3379 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3380 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3381 (string-append x y))
3383 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3384 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3386 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3387 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3388 be made in a clean way.]
3390 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3392 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3394 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3396 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3397 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3399 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3401 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3403 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3405 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3407 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3408 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3409 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3410 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3413 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3415 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3417 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3419 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3421 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3422 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3424 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3426 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3428 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3430 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3432 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3433 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3434 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3435 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3436 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3437 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3439 This should not make any difference for most users.
3441 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3443 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3444 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3446 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3448 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3449 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3450 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3451 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3452 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3454 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3456 It is now replaced by:
3458 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3460 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3461 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3463 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3465 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3466 This might change when we get the new module system.
3468 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3472 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3474 * Changes to mailing lists
3476 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3478 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3481 * Changes to the distribution
3483 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3485 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3486 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3487 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3488 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3489 you explicitly specify it.
3491 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3492 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3493 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3494 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3495 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3498 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3499 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3500 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3501 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3503 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3504 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3505 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3508 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3510 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3513 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3515 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3517 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3518 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3519 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3520 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3522 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3523 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3526 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3528 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3529 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3530 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3531 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3532 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3533 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3534 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3535 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3547 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3548 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3549 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3550 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3551 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3556 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3557 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3565 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3570 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3571 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3574 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3575 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3576 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3577 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3579 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3581 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3583 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3584 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3586 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3588 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3590 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3591 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3593 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3596 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3598 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3600 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3602 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3604 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3606 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3608 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3609 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3610 when the hook was created.
3612 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3613 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3614 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3615 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3616 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3617 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3618 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3619 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3620 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3622 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3623 the dlopen family of functions.
3625 ** New function `provided?'
3627 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3628 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3629 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3630 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3632 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3634 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3635 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3636 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3637 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3640 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3641 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3642 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3643 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3645 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3646 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3647 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3650 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3651 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3652 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3653 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3654 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3655 but with the flag set.
3657 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3659 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3660 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3662 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3663 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3664 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3665 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3666 available Scheme format implementations.
3668 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3669 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3670 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3671 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3672 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3673 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3674 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3675 output is to the current error port if available by the
3676 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3679 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3680 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3681 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3682 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3683 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3684 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3685 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3686 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3688 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3689 be executed at a time.
3692 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3694 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3695 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3696 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3698 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3699 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3700 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3701 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3702 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3703 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3704 general form of a directive is:
3706 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3708 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3710 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3712 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3713 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3714 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3717 Any (print as `display' does).
3721 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3725 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3729 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3735 print number sign always.
3738 print comma separated.
3740 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3746 print number sign always.
3749 print comma separated.
3751 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3757 print number sign always.
3760 print comma separated.
3762 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3768 print number sign always.
3771 print comma separated.
3773 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
3778 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
3782 print a number as a Roman numeral.
3785 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
3788 print a number as an ordinal English number.
3791 print a number as a cardinal English number.
3796 prints `y' and `ies'.
3799 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3802 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3807 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
3811 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
3814 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
3815 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
3817 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3820 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
3821 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
3823 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3826 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
3828 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
3830 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3833 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
3835 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
3837 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3840 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
3843 The sign appears before the padding.
3851 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
3853 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
3858 print N page separators.
3868 newline is ignored, white space left.
3871 newline is left, white space ignored.
3876 relative tabulation.
3882 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
3884 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
3887 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
3889 converts by `string-capitalize'.
3892 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
3895 converts by `string-upcase'.
3898 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
3900 jumps N arguments forward.
3903 jumps 1 argument backward.
3906 jumps N arguments backward.
3909 jumps to the 0th argument.
3912 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
3914 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
3915 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
3917 take argument from N.
3920 true test conditional.
3923 if-else-then conditional.
3929 default clause follows.
3932 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
3934 at most N iterations.
3937 args from next arg (a list of lists).
3940 args from the rest of arguments.
3943 args from the rest args (lists).
3954 aborts if N <= M <= K
3956 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3959 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3962 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3968 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
3970 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
3972 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
3973 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
3974 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
3975 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
3976 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
3977 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
3981 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
3985 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
3991 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
3994 Print a `#\space' character
3996 print N `#\space' characters.
3999 Print a `#\tab' character
4001 print N `#\tab' characters.
4004 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
4005 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
4006 must be a positive decimal number.
4009 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4010 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4011 be processed by `read'.
4014 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4015 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4016 be processed by `read'.
4019 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
4022 prints format version.
4025 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
4026 and format it accordingly.
4028 *** Configuration Variables
4030 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
4031 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
4032 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
4033 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
4036 format:symbol-case-conv
4037 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
4038 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
4039 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
4040 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
4041 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
4043 format:iobj-case-conv
4044 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
4045 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4048 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4051 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4057 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4058 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4059 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4060 `format' padding style.
4063 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4064 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4065 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4066 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4070 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4071 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4072 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4075 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4076 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4077 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4078 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4079 parameters or modifiers)).
4082 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4084 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4086 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4087 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4089 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4090 string-downcase! functions.
4092 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4093 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4095 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4098 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4101 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4102 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4104 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4106 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4107 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4109 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4110 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4111 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4112 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4113 would if STRING were input.
4115 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4117 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4118 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4119 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4120 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4123 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4125 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4126 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4129 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4131 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4132 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4134 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4135 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4137 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4138 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4139 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4140 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4142 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4143 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4145 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4146 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4147 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4149 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4150 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4152 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4153 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4154 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4155 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4156 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4158 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4159 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4160 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4161 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4162 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4163 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4165 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4166 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4167 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4170 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4171 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4172 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4173 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4174 the following grammar:
4175 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4176 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4177 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4178 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4179 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4180 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4181 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4182 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4183 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4184 last option in its combination)
4186 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4187 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4188 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4189 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4191 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4192 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4193 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4195 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4196 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4197 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4199 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4200 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4201 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4202 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4203 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4204 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4205 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4206 ordinary argument strings.
4208 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4209 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4210 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4211 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4213 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4214 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4216 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4217 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4218 - a required option is omitted
4219 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4220 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4221 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4222 - an option predicate fails
4227 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4230 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4231 (verbose (required? #f)
4234 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4235 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4236 (predicate ,string?))))
4238 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4239 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4241 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4242 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4243 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4244 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4247 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4249 It will be removed in a few releases.
4251 ** New syntax: lambda*
4252 ** New syntax: define*
4253 ** New syntax: define*-public
4254 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4255 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4256 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4258 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4259 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4260 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4261 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4262 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4264 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4265 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4266 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4268 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4270 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4271 and examples for `lambda*':
4274 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4276 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4277 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4278 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4279 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4280 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4281 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4282 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4283 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4285 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4287 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4288 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4289 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4290 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4292 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4293 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4294 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4295 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4296 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4297 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4298 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4299 and until the procedure is called.
4301 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4303 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4304 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4305 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4306 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4307 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4308 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4309 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4310 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4311 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4312 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4314 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4315 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4316 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4317 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4320 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4322 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4323 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4324 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4325 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4327 ** New syntax: and-let*
4328 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4330 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4331 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4332 (<variable> <expression>)
4335 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4336 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4337 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4340 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4341 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4342 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4343 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4344 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4345 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4346 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4348 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4349 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4350 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4351 shadow earlier bindings.
4353 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4355 ** New sorting functions
4357 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4358 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4359 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4360 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4362 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4363 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4366 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4367 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4368 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4370 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4371 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4372 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4373 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4375 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4376 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4377 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4378 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4379 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4382 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4383 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4384 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4385 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4386 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4387 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4389 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4390 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4391 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4393 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4394 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4395 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4398 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4399 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4400 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4402 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4403 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4405 ** New built-in random number support
4407 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4408 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4409 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4410 returned have a uniform distribution.
4412 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4413 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4414 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4415 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4416 effect of the `random' operation.
4418 *** New variable: *random-state*
4419 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4420 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4421 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4422 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4423 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4426 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4427 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4428 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4429 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4430 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4432 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4433 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4434 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4435 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4436 initialized using SEED.
4438 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4439 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4440 range between 0 and 1.
4442 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4443 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4444 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4445 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4446 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4447 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4448 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4450 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4451 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4452 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4453 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4454 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4455 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4457 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4458 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4459 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4460 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4462 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4463 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4464 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4465 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4467 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4468 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4469 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4471 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4473 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4476 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4477 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4480 ** New function: make-guardian
4481 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4482 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4483 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4484 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4485 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4487 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4488 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4489 one object if at all.
4491 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4492 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4493 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4495 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4496 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4497 read again in last-in first-out order.
4499 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4500 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4502 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4504 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4505 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4506 file position is used.
4508 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4509 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4510 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4512 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4513 redefined using seek.
4515 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4516 size is not supplied.
4518 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4519 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4521 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4522 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4524 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4526 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4527 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4528 and returns the contents as a single string.
4530 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4531 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4532 lists in serial order.
4534 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4535 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4536 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4538 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4539 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4540 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4541 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4543 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4544 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4545 and #f if an error occured.
4547 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4549 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4550 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4551 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4552 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4554 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4556 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4559 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4561 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4564 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4568 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4569 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4571 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4572 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4576 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4578 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4580 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4581 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4583 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4585 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4586 might change when we get the new module system.
4588 ** The smob interface
4590 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4591 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4593 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4595 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4599 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4600 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4601 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4602 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4603 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4604 will be freed by the default free function.
4606 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4607 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4608 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4609 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4611 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4612 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4613 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4614 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4616 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4618 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4619 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4623 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4624 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4625 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4627 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4628 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4629 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4630 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4632 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4633 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4634 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4636 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4637 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4638 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4639 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4641 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4642 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4643 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4645 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4649 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4651 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4652 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4653 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4655 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4656 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4657 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4659 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4660 a string port's buffer.
4662 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4663 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4664 function pointers which together define the current random number
4665 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4666 number library functions.
4668 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4671 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4672 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4675 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4676 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4678 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4679 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4681 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4682 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4685 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4686 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4687 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4688 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4690 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4691 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4692 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4693 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4694 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4695 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4696 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4698 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4699 by libguile and the application.
4701 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4702 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4703 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4704 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4706 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4707 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4709 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4710 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4711 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4713 ** Random number library functions
4714 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4715 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4716 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4718 The default random state is stored in:
4720 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4721 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4722 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4727 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4729 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4730 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4731 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4732 isn't a random state.
4734 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4735 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4737 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4738 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4739 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4740 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4742 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4743 Return 32 random bits.
4745 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4746 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4748 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4749 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4751 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4752 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4754 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4755 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4757 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4758 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4759 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4763 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4765 * Changes to the distribution
4767 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4768 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4769 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4772 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4773 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4774 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
4776 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
4777 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
4778 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
4779 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
4782 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
4783 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
4784 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
4786 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4788 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
4790 *** Function: batch-mode?
4792 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
4795 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
4797 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
4798 case has not been implemented.
4800 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
4801 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
4802 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
4805 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
4806 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
4808 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
4810 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4812 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
4814 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
4815 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
4818 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
4819 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
4820 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
4821 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
4824 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
4826 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
4827 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
4828 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
4829 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
4830 find those libraries.
4832 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
4833 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
4836 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
4838 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
4839 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
4840 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
4841 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
4843 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
4844 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
4845 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
4849 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
4851 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
4852 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
4853 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
4856 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
4857 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
4858 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
4859 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
4861 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
4862 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
4865 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
4866 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
4867 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
4868 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
4869 compiler where to find the libraries.
4871 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
4872 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
4873 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
4875 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
4876 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
4877 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
4878 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
4879 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
4883 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4885 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
4886 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
4887 internationalization support.
4889 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
4890 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
4891 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
4892 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
4893 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
4895 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
4896 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
4897 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
4898 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
4899 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
4901 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
4902 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
4903 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
4904 any GNU mirror site.
4906 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
4908 ** New function: add-history STRING
4909 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
4910 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
4911 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
4913 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
4915 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
4916 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
4917 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
4920 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
4921 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
4922 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
4924 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
4926 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
4929 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
4930 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
4933 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
4934 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
4935 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
4936 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
4937 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
4938 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
4940 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
4941 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
4942 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
4943 of the form mentioned above.
4945 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
4946 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
4947 returned in the special `rest' list.
4949 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
4950 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
4952 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
4954 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
4956 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
4958 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
4959 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
4960 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
4961 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
4962 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
4963 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
4964 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
4965 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
4968 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
4970 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
4972 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
4973 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
4976 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
4977 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
4978 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
4982 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
4983 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
4984 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
4985 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
4986 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
4987 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
4988 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
4989 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
4992 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
4994 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
4995 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
4996 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
4998 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
5000 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
5001 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
5003 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
5004 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
5005 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
5007 Why do we have this function?
5008 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
5009 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
5010 primitive, and display it differently, and
5011 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
5012 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
5015 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
5016 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
5019 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
5020 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
5021 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
5022 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
5024 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
5025 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
5028 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
5029 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
5031 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
5033 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
5034 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
5035 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
5036 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
5037 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
5038 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
5039 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
5042 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
5044 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
5045 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
5047 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5048 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5049 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5050 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5051 properly continue the print chain.
5053 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5054 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5055 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5056 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5057 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5058 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5059 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5060 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5062 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5063 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5064 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5065 safest to not check for these pairs.
5067 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5068 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5069 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5070 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5072 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5074 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5075 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5077 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5079 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5081 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5082 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5083 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5085 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5086 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5087 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5089 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5090 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5091 the following functions and macros:
5093 Function: make-fluid
5095 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5096 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5097 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5098 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5099 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5101 Function: fluid? OBJ
5103 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5105 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5106 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5108 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5109 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5111 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5113 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5114 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5115 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5116 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5117 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5118 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5119 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5121 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5123 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5124 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5125 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5126 should evaluate to a fluid.
5128 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5130 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5131 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5132 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5133 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5134 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5136 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5139 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5141 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5143 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5145 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5148 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5149 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5150 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5151 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5152 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5155 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5156 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5157 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5159 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5160 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5161 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5163 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5164 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5165 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5166 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5168 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5169 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5170 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5171 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5173 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5174 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5175 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5176 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5178 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5179 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5180 their revealed counts set to zero.
5182 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5183 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5185 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5186 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5188 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5189 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5191 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5192 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5193 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5195 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5196 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5197 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5199 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5200 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5201 default environment inherited by child processes.
5203 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5204 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5205 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5207 The return value is unspecified.
5209 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5210 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5211 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5212 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5213 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5215 The return value is unspecified.
5217 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5218 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5226 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5227 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5230 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5233 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5234 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5235 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5237 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5238 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5239 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5240 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5243 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5244 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5246 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5247 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5248 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5249 the `environ' procedure.
5251 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5252 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5255 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5256 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5258 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5259 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5260 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5261 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5263 *** procedure: times
5264 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5265 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5266 return a selected component:
5269 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5273 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5276 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5280 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5281 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5285 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5286 terminated child processes.
5288 ** Removed: list-length
5289 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5290 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5292 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5294 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5296 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5298 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5299 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5300 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5301 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5303 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5304 extra complexity it introduces.
5306 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5307 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5309 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5310 variable to any non-empty value.
5312 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5313 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5315 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5317 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5318 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5320 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5322 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5323 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5325 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5327 ** vector handling routines
5329 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5330 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5331 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5332 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5333 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5335 ** pair and list routines
5337 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5340 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5342 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5345 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5347 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5349 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5350 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5351 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5352 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5353 site-specific initialization code.
5355 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5356 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5357 initialization processes.
5359 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5360 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5361 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5362 initialized properly.
5364 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5365 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5366 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5368 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5369 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5370 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5371 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5372 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5374 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5376 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5377 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5378 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5379 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5380 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5382 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5383 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5384 which look like this:
5387 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5389 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5390 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5393 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5394 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5397 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5399 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5400 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5401 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5403 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5404 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5405 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5406 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5407 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5409 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5410 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5412 int (*free) (SCM port);
5413 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5414 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5415 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5419 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5420 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5421 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5423 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5426 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5427 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5428 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5430 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5431 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5432 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5435 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5439 struct timeval *timeout);
5441 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5442 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5443 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5444 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5445 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5446 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5448 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5449 scm_catch_body_t body,
5451 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5454 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5455 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5456 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5457 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5458 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5459 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5461 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5463 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5466 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5467 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5468 spawning threads from application C code.
5470 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5471 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5472 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5473 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5474 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5475 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5477 ** Removed functions:
5479 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5480 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5482 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5484 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5485 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5487 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5489 ** mbstrings are now removed
5491 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5492 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5494 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5496 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5497 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5498 their new names and arguments:
5500 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5501 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5502 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5503 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5506 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5508 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5510 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5513 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5515 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5516 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5517 pass a #f arg to catch.
5519 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5521 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5522 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5525 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5526 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5527 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5528 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5529 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5530 reclaim its storage.
5532 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5533 worrying that some other function you call will call
5534 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5535 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5536 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5537 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5540 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5542 * Changes to the distribution
5544 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5545 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5548 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5549 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5551 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5552 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5554 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5556 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5557 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5558 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5560 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5562 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5563 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5564 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5565 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5566 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5567 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5569 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5570 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5571 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5574 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5575 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5576 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5577 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5579 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5580 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5581 libraries to your link command:
5583 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5584 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5585 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5586 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5588 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5589 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5590 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5592 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5594 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5595 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5598 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5600 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5601 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5602 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5603 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5604 searched is system dependent.
5606 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5608 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5610 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5612 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5613 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5615 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5617 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5618 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5619 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5620 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5621 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5624 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5626 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5627 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5628 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5629 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5630 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5632 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5634 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5635 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5637 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5639 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5640 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5641 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5644 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5646 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5647 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5648 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5649 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5651 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5652 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5654 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5656 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5657 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5659 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5661 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5662 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5670 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5672 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5673 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5674 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5675 a more informative way.
5677 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5678 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5679 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5680 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5681 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5682 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5684 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5685 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5688 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5689 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5690 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5693 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5694 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5695 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5696 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5697 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5698 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5700 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5701 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5702 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5703 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5706 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5707 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5708 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5709 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5710 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5711 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5713 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5714 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5715 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5716 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5717 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5719 *** regexp functions
5721 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5722 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5723 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5725 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5726 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5727 with SCSH regular expressions.
5729 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5730 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5731 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5732 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5734 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5735 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5736 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5737 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5739 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5740 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5741 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5742 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5743 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5744 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5746 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5747 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5748 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5749 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5750 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5752 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5754 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5755 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5756 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5757 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5759 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5760 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5761 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5763 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5764 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5766 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5769 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5770 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5771 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5773 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5774 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5775 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
5777 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
5778 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
5779 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
5780 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
5781 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
5784 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5786 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
5787 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
5788 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
5789 used when different portions of a string are passed to
5790 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
5791 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
5793 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
5794 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
5795 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
5797 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
5798 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
5801 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
5802 and replace them with the contents of another string.
5804 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
5805 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
5806 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
5807 may be one of the following arguments:
5809 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
5811 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
5813 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
5814 the regexp match is written.
5816 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
5817 following the regexp match is written.
5819 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
5820 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
5823 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
5824 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
5825 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
5826 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
5827 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
5828 which should be matched against this regular expression.
5830 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
5833 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
5834 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
5835 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
5836 written out to PORT.
5838 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
5839 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
5840 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
5841 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
5842 will return after processing a single match.
5844 *** Match Structures
5846 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
5847 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
5848 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
5849 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
5850 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
5851 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
5854 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
5855 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
5856 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
5857 information about the original target string that was matched against a
5858 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
5860 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
5861 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
5862 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
5864 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
5865 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
5866 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
5867 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
5868 number N did not match, return `#f'.
5870 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
5871 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
5873 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
5874 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
5876 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
5877 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
5879 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
5880 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
5882 **** Function: match:count MATCH
5883 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
5884 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
5885 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
5887 **** Function: match:string MATCH
5888 Return the original TARGET string.
5890 *** Backslash Escapes
5892 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
5893 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
5894 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
5895 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
5896 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
5897 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
5899 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
5900 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
5901 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
5902 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
5903 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
5904 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
5905 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
5906 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
5908 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
5909 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
5910 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
5911 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
5912 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
5913 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
5914 each match a single backslash in the target string.
5916 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
5917 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
5918 return the resulting string.
5920 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
5921 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
5922 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
5923 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
5924 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
5925 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
5926 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
5927 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
5928 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
5929 translated to the single character `*'.
5931 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
5932 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
5933 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
5934 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
5935 consecutive backslashes:
5937 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
5939 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
5940 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
5941 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
5943 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
5944 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
5945 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
5946 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
5947 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
5948 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
5950 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
5952 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
5953 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
5954 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
5955 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
5956 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
5957 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
5958 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
5959 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
5960 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
5961 cumbersome escape syntax.
5963 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5965 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5967 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5969 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
5972 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
5974 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
5976 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
5979 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
5980 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
5981 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
5982 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
5983 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
5985 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
5986 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
5987 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
5988 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
5989 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
5990 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
5991 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
5994 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
5995 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
5996 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
5999 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
6000 `force-output' on every port open for output.
6002 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
6003 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
6004 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
6005 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
6006 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
6007 installed, you can say:
6009 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
6012 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6014 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
6015 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
6016 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
6017 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
6018 new dynamic roots and threads.
6021 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
6023 * Changes to the distribution.
6025 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
6027 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
6028 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
6029 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
6030 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
6031 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
6032 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
6033 programming language. These are packaged together because the
6034 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
6036 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
6039 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
6040 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
6045 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6047 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6048 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6050 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6051 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6052 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6053 the (command-line) function.
6054 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6055 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6056 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6058 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6059 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6060 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6061 command line arguments
6062 -ds do -s script at this point
6063 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6064 -h, --help display this help and exit
6065 -v, --version display version information and exit
6066 \ read arguments from following script lines
6068 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6069 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6071 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6074 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6078 (main (command-line))
6080 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6082 ekko a speckled gecko
6084 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6085 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6086 following list of command-line arguments:
6088 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6090 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6091 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6092 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6093 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6094 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6096 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6098 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6100 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6101 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6104 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6105 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6106 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6107 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6109 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6110 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6111 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6112 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6114 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6118 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6122 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6124 ekko a speckled gecko
6126 Unix expands this into
6128 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6130 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6131 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6133 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6135 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6136 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6138 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6139 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6140 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6141 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6142 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6143 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6144 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6145 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6146 it only terminates the argument list.)
6147 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6148 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6149 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6150 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6151 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6152 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6153 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6154 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6156 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6158 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6159 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6160 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6161 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6162 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6164 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6165 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6166 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6168 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6170 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6171 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6172 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6173 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6176 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6177 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6178 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6180 * Changes to Scheme functions
6182 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6183 and disabled by default.
6185 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6186 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6187 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6188 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6190 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6192 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6194 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6195 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6197 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6198 (read-set! keywords #f)
6200 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6201 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6202 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6205 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6206 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6207 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6210 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6211 support for Scheme functions.
6213 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6214 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6215 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6216 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6219 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6220 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6221 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6224 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6225 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6226 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6229 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6230 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6231 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6232 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6233 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6234 display the result as a prompt.
6235 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6237 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6238 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6239 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6242 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6243 procedure of zero arguments.
6245 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6246 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6247 argument is bound in the current module.
6249 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6250 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6251 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6252 public bindings into the current module.
6254 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6255 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6257 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6258 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6260 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6261 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6263 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6264 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6266 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6267 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6269 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6270 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6271 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6272 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6273 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6275 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6276 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6277 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6278 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6280 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6283 ** Changes to I/O functions
6285 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6286 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6287 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6289 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6290 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6291 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6293 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6294 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6296 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6297 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6298 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6299 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6301 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6303 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6304 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6306 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6307 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6308 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6309 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6310 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6313 'trim omit delimiter from result
6314 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6315 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6316 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6318 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6320 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6321 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6323 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6324 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6325 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6326 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6327 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6329 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6330 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6331 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6333 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6334 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6335 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6336 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6338 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6339 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6341 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6342 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6344 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6346 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6347 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6348 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6349 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6350 a delimiting character.
6351 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6353 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6354 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6355 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6356 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6357 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6358 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6360 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6361 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6363 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6364 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6365 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6367 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6368 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6369 the array to read and write.
6371 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6372 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6375 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6377 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6380 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6381 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6382 Values for COMMAND are:
6384 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6385 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6386 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6387 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6388 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6389 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6390 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6391 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6393 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6395 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6396 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6397 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6398 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6399 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6400 corresponding return set will be the same.
6402 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6405 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6406 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6407 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6408 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6409 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6410 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6411 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6412 special file being created.
6414 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6415 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6417 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6418 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6419 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6420 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6421 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6422 and originating address.
6424 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6425 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6426 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6428 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6431 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6432 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6435 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6436 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6437 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6438 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6439 this function returns #f.
6441 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6442 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6443 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6446 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6447 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6448 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6451 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6452 a valid STATUS value.
6454 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6456 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6457 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6459 Component Accessor Setter
6460 ========================= ============ ============
6461 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6462 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6463 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6464 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6465 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6466 year tm:year set-tm:year
6467 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6468 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6469 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6470 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6471 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6473 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6474 describing the host system:
6477 ============================================== ================
6478 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6479 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6480 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6481 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6482 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6484 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6485 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6486 system's user database:
6489 ====================== =================
6490 user name passwd:name
6491 user password passwd:passwd
6494 real name passwd:gecos
6495 home directory passwd:dir
6496 shell program passwd:shell
6498 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6499 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6500 system's group database:
6503 ======================= ============
6504 group name group:name
6505 group password group:passwd
6507 group members group:mem
6509 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6510 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6514 ========================= ===============
6515 official name of host hostent:name
6516 alias list hostent:aliases
6517 host address type hostent:addrtype
6518 length of address hostent:length
6519 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6521 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6522 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6526 ========================= ===============
6527 official name of net netent:name
6528 alias list netent:aliases
6529 net number type netent:addrtype
6530 net number netent:net
6532 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6533 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6537 ========================= ===============
6538 official protocol name protoent:name
6539 alias list protoent:aliases
6540 protocol number protoent:proto
6542 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6543 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6547 ========================= ===============
6548 official service name servent:name
6549 alias list servent:aliases
6550 port number servent:port
6551 protocol to use servent:proto
6553 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6554 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6557 ======================================== ===============
6558 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6559 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6560 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6561 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6563 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6564 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6565 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6567 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6568 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6570 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6571 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6573 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6574 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6576 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6578 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6580 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6581 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6582 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6584 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6585 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6586 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6587 return the remaining characters as a string.
6589 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6590 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6591 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6593 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6595 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6597 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6600 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6603 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6604 and returns the array
6606 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6607 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6608 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6610 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6612 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6613 symbol's value from C code:
6615 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6616 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6617 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6618 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6620 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6621 without assigning them a value.
6623 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6624 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6625 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6627 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6628 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6629 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6631 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6632 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6634 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6635 doesn't actually care about that.
6637 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6638 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6639 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6641 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6642 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6643 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6644 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6645 which we have just created and initialized.
6647 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6648 should one occur. We call it like this:
6649 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6651 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6652 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6653 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6654 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6655 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6656 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6659 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6660 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6661 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6662 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6663 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6664 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6665 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6668 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6669 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6670 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6671 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6672 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6675 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6676 scm_internal_catch, except:
6678 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6679 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6680 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6681 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6684 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6685 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6686 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6688 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6689 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6690 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6691 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6694 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6695 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6696 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6698 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6699 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6700 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6701 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6702 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6704 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6705 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6706 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6708 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6709 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6710 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6712 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6713 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6715 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6716 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6717 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6720 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6721 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6722 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6723 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6724 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6725 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6726 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6729 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6730 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6732 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6733 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6734 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6735 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6736 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6739 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6740 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6742 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6743 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6746 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6747 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6749 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6752 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6753 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6754 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6755 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6756 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6757 given the following arguments:
6759 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6761 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6763 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6765 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6768 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6769 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6770 command-line arguments.
6772 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6773 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6774 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6775 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
6776 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
6777 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
6780 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6783 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
6784 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
6786 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
6787 rearranged slightly. They are now:
6789 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6790 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6791 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
6792 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
6794 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6795 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6797 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6798 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
6799 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6800 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
6802 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6803 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6805 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
6806 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
6808 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
6810 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
6811 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
6812 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
6815 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
6816 returns a port instead of an FD object.
6818 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
6819 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
6824 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
6827 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
6829 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
6830 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
6831 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
6832 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
6834 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
6836 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
6838 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
6839 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
6840 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
6841 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
6842 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
6843 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
6844 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
6845 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
6846 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
6847 for more information.
6849 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
6850 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
6852 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
6853 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
6854 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
6855 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
6856 following two lines at the top of the file:
6858 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6861 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
6862 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
6863 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
6865 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
6867 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6869 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
6872 (display (car args))
6873 (if (pair? (cdr args))
6875 (loop (cdr args)))))
6878 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
6879 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
6880 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
6881 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
6882 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
6883 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
6887 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
6890 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
6893 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
6895 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
6896 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
6897 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
6898 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
6899 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
6902 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
6903 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
6904 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
6905 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
6906 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
6909 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
6912 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
6913 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
6914 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
6917 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
6918 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
6919 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
6921 to see a backtrace, and
6922 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
6923 to see them by default.
6927 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
6929 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
6931 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
6932 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
6935 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
6936 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
6937 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
6938 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
6941 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
6942 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
6943 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
6944 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
6945 functions which inspired them.
6947 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
6948 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
6952 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
6954 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
6956 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
6957 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
6960 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
6961 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
6962 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
6964 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
6965 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
6966 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
6967 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
6968 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
6970 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
6972 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
6973 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
6974 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
6977 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
6980 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
6982 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
6983 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
6984 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
6985 above should serve their purposes.
6987 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
6988 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
6989 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
6990 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
6992 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
6995 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
6996 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
6997 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
6998 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
7000 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
7001 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
7002 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
7003 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
7005 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
7006 for the `read' function.
7009 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
7010 to that of `integer?'.
7012 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
7013 use the R4RS names for these functions.
7015 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
7016 it simply returns the object's property list.
7018 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
7019 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
7020 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
7021 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
7023 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
7025 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
7028 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
7030 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
7031 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
7033 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
7035 void (*main_func) (),
7038 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
7039 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
7040 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
7041 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
7042 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
7044 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
7045 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
7046 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
7047 know which arguments have been processed.
7049 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7050 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7051 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7052 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7053 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7055 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7056 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7057 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7058 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7059 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7060 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7061 people from making that mistake.
7063 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7064 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7066 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7068 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7072 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7075 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7076 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7077 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7078 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7081 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7082 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7083 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7084 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7087 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7088 have been added to the Guile library.
7090 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7091 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7092 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7095 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7096 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7097 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7099 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7100 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7101 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7102 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7103 argument from the list.
7106 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7109 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7110 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7112 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7113 to a Scheme port object.
7115 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7116 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7121 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7123 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7124 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7125 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7126 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7127 code as a special datatype.
7129 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7130 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7131 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7132 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7133 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7136 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7137 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7138 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7139 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7140 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7142 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7145 Copyright information:
7147 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7149 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7150 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7151 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7152 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7154 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7155 of this document, or of portions of it,
7156 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7157 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7162 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"