1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
8 (During the 1.9 series, we will keep an incremental NEWS for the latest
9 prerelease, and a full NEWS corresponding to 1.8 -> 2.0.)
11 Changes in 1.9.3 (since the 1.9.2 prerelease):
14 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
16 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
17 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
18 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
20 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
21 code easier and less error-prone.
23 ** Files loaded with `load' will now be compiled automatically.
25 As with files loaded via `primitive-load-path', `load' will also compile
26 its target if autocompilation is enabled, and a fresh compiled file is
29 There are two points of difference to note, however. First, `load' does
30 not search `GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH' for the file; it only looks in the
31 autocompilation directory, normally a subdirectory of ~/.cache/guile.
33 Secondly, autocompilation also applies to files loaded via the -l
34 command-line argument -- so the user may experience a slight slowdown
35 the first time they run a Guile script, as the script is autocompiled.
37 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
39 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
40 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
41 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
42 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
43 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
46 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
47 code. This use is now discouraged.
49 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
51 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
52 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
53 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
56 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
57 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
58 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
60 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
62 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
64 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
65 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
66 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
67 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
69 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
71 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
72 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
75 ** Unicode symbol support
77 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
79 ** New readline history functions
81 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
82 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
83 History library functions.
85 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
86 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
88 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
91 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
92 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
93 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
94 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
96 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
98 ** scm_array_p has one argument, not two
100 Use of the second argument produced a deprecation warning, so it is
101 unlikely that any code out there actually used this functionality.
103 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
105 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
106 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
108 ** `libguile-i18n' has been merged into `libguile'
110 The C support code for `(ice-9 i18n)', which used to be in
111 `libguile-i18n', is now part of `libguile'.
113 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
115 ** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes
117 Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information.
121 Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series):
123 * New modules (see the manual for details)
125 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
126 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
127 ** `(rnrs bytevector)', the R6RS bytevector API
128 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
129 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
131 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
133 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
135 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
136 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
138 ** The stack limit is now initialized from the environment.
140 If getrlimit(2) is available and a stack limit is set, Guile will set
141 its stack limit to 80% of the rlimit. Otherwise the limit is 160000
142 words, a four-fold increase from the earlier default limit.
144 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
145 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
147 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
148 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
149 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
152 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
154 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. While
155 it is self-documenting to an extent, the new REPL has not yet been
156 documented in the manual. This will be fixed before 2.0.
158 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
160 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
163 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
165 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
167 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
168 not apply to the compiler.
170 ** Files loaded with `primitive-load-path' will now be compiled
173 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
174 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
175 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
177 Note that this mechanism depends on preservation of the .scm and .go
178 modification times; if the .scm or .go files are moved after
179 installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
182 Autocompiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
183 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
184 will be created if needed.
186 To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
187 variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line.
189 Note that there is currently a bug here: automatic compilation will
190 sometimes be attempted when it shouldn't.
192 For example, the old (lang elisp) modules are meant to be interpreted,
193 not compiled. This bug will be fixed before 2.0. FIXME 2.0: Should say
194 something here about module-transformer called for compile.
196 ** Files loaded with `load' will now be compiled automatically.
198 As with files loaded via `primitive-load-path', `load' will also compile
199 its target if autocompilation is enabled, and a fresh compiled file is
202 There are two points of difference to note, however. First, `load' does
203 not search `GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH' for the file; it only looks in the
204 autocompilation directory, normally a subdirectory of ~/.cache/guile.
206 Secondly, autocompilation also applies to files loaded via the -l
207 command-line argument -- so the user may experience a slight slowdown
208 the first time they run a Guile script, as the script is autocompiled.
210 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
212 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
213 in the next prerelease.
215 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
217 ** BUG: (procedure-property func 'arity) does not work on compiled
220 This will be fixed one way or another before 2.0.
222 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
223 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
224 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments',
226 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
227 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
228 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
229 procedures' docstrings for more information.
231 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
232 combining arity and formals. For example:
234 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
235 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
237 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
240 ** Deprecated: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
242 These procedures will not work with syncase expansion, and indeed are
243 not used in the normal course of Guile. They are still used by the old
244 Emacs Lisp support, however.
246 ** New language: ECMAScript
248 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
249 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
250 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
251 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
253 ** New language: Brainfuck
255 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
256 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
257 languages. See the manual for details, or
258 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
259 Brainfuck language itself.
261 ** Defmacros may now have docstrings.
263 Indeed, any macro may have a docstring. `object-documentation' from
264 `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to retrieve the docstring, once you
265 have a macro value -- but see the above note about first-class macros.
266 Docstrings are associated with the syntax transformer procedures.
268 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
271 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
273 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
274 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
277 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
278 (define (helper x) ...)
280 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
282 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
285 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
286 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
288 ** New function, `procedure-module'
290 While useful on its own, `procedure-module' is used by psyntax on syntax
291 transformers to determine the module in which to scope introduced
294 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
296 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. It is still
297 missing documentation, however.
299 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
302 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
303 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
305 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
307 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
309 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
311 It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g.
312 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate
313 feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the
314 default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0
315 in response to user feedback.
317 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
319 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
320 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
323 (define (helper x) ...)
324 (define-macro (foo bar)
327 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
330 (define (helper x) ...)
331 (define-macro (foo bar)
332 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
334 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
338 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
340 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
342 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
349 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
350 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
353 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
355 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
359 (define-macro (ref x) x)
362 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
363 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
364 macros before code that uses them.
366 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
369 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
371 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
372 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
373 (double-literal 2) => 4
375 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
376 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
377 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
379 (eval-when (load compile eval)
380 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
381 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
382 (double-literal 2) => 4
384 See the (currently missing) documentation for eval-when for more
387 ** New variable, %pre-modules-transformer
389 Need to document this one some more.
391 ** Temporarily removed functions: `macroexpand', `macroexpand-1'
393 `macroexpand' will be added back before 2.0. It is unclear how to
394 implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though PLT Scheme does prove
397 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
399 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
400 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
401 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
403 ** Incompatible change to #'
405 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
406 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
407 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
408 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
410 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
412 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
415 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
416 works (with compiled procedures)
418 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
419 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
420 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
421 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
423 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
424 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
425 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
426 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
427 number of stack frames.
429 ** backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
430 active in the current continuation
432 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
433 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
434 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
435 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
437 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
438 through to the expanded code
440 This should result in better backtraces.
442 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
444 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
446 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
448 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
449 default. If there is sufficient demand, this syntax can be supported
452 ** All modules have names now
454 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
455 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
456 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
457 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
459 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
461 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
462 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
463 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
465 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
466 values to the expected number
468 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
469 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
470 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
472 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
473 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
474 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
475 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
477 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
478 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
479 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
481 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
484 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
486 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
488 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
489 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
490 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
491 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
492 the interpreter would proceed.
494 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
495 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
496 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
497 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
499 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
501 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
502 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
503 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
504 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
505 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
506 you to contact the Guile developers.
508 ** psyntax is now the default expander
510 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
511 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
514 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
515 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
516 code in question was memoized.
518 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
519 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
520 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
521 `x432' instead of `x'.
523 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
524 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
525 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
526 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
528 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
530 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
531 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
532 `sc-expand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
535 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
536 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
537 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
538 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
540 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
541 by nonhygienic macros.
543 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
544 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
547 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
548 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
549 (define-macro (ref x)
556 (define-syntax bind-x
558 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
559 (define-macro (ref x)
563 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
564 as code is ported over from defmacros to syntax-case, it is possible to
565 run into situations like this. In the future, Guile will probably port
566 its `while' macro to syntax-case, which makes this issue one to know
569 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
571 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
572 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
574 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
575 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
578 This decision may be revisited before the 2.0 release. Feedback welcome
579 to guile-devel@gnu.org (subscription required) or bug-guile@gnu.org (no
580 subscription required).
582 ** Unicode characters
584 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
585 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
586 probably be introduced at some point.
590 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
591 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
592 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
594 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
595 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
596 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
597 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
601 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
603 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
605 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
606 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
607 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
608 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
609 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
612 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
613 code. This use is now discouraged.
615 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
617 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
618 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
619 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
622 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
623 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
624 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
626 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
628 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
630 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
631 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
632 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
633 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
635 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
637 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
638 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
641 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
643 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
644 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
645 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
648 ** EBCDIC support is removed
650 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
651 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
652 and was unmaintained.
654 ** New macro type: syncase-macro
656 XXX Need to decide whether to document this for 2.0, probably should:
657 make-syncase-macro, make-extended-syncase-macro, macro-type,
658 syncase-macro-type, syncase-macro-binding
660 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
662 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
665 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
667 This slightly improves program startup times.
669 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
671 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
673 ** Fix bad interaction between `false-if-exception' and stack-call.
675 Exceptions thrown by `false-if-exception' were erronously causing the
676 stack to be saved, causing later errors to show the incorrectly-saved
677 backtrace. This has been fixed.
679 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
681 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
683 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
685 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
687 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
689 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
691 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
693 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
695 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
696 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
697 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
699 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
701 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
702 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
704 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
705 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
707 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
710 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
712 * Changes to the C interface
714 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
716 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
717 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
718 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
720 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
721 code easier and less error-prone.
723 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
725 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
727 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
730 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
731 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
733 ** scm_primitive_load_path has additional argument, exception_on_error
735 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
737 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
739 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
740 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
742 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
744 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
745 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
747 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
749 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
750 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
751 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
752 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
754 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
756 ** scm_array_p has one argument, not two
758 Use of the second argument produced a deprecation warning, so it is
759 unlikely that any code out there actually used this functionality.
761 * Changes to the distribution
763 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
765 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
766 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
769 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
771 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
772 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
774 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
776 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
777 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
778 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
781 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
783 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
784 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
786 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
788 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
789 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
791 ** New dependency: libgc
793 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
795 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
797 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
798 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
802 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
806 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
807 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
810 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
812 * New modules (see the manual for details)
814 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
818 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
819 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
820 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
821 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
822 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
823 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
824 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
825 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
826 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
827 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
828 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
830 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
832 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
833 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
834 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
837 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
840 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
842 * New features (see the manual for details)
844 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
846 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
848 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
849 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
850 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
852 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
854 * Changes to the distribution
856 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
858 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
859 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
861 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
863 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
864 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
869 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
870 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
871 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
872 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
873 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
874 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
875 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
876 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
877 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
878 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
879 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
880 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
881 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
882 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
884 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
885 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
886 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
887 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
888 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
891 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
893 * Infrastructure changes
895 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
897 The new repository can be accessed using
898 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
899 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
901 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
903 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
905 * New modules (see the manual for details)
909 * New features (see the manual for details)
911 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
912 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
913 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
915 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
916 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
917 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
918 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
920 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
922 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
923 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
924 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
928 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
929 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
931 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
932 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
934 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
935 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
937 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
938 lead to a stack overflow.
940 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
941 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
942 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
943 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
944 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
945 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
946 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
947 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
948 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
949 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
950 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
951 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
952 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
953 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
954 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
955 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
958 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
962 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
963 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
964 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
965 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
966 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
967 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
968 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
969 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
970 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
971 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
972 system and library calls.
973 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
974 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
975 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
976 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
977 uniform vectors on AIX.
978 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
979 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
980 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
981 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
982 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
984 * New modules (see the manual for details)
988 * Documentation fixes and improvements
990 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
992 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
993 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
995 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
997 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
999 * Changes to the distribution
1001 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
1003 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
1004 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
1005 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
1007 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
1009 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
1012 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
1014 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1021 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
1022 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
1023 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
1024 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
1025 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
1026 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
1027 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
1029 * Implementation improvements
1031 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
1032 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
1035 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
1037 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1039 ** set-program-arguments
1042 * Incompatible changes
1044 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
1046 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
1047 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
1048 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
1049 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
1054 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
1055 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
1056 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
1057 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
1058 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
1059 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
1061 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
1062 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
1063 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
1064 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
1065 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
1066 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
1067 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
1068 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
1069 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
1070 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
1071 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
1072 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
1073 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
1074 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
1075 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
1076 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
1079 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
1081 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
1083 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1085 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
1086 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
1087 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
1088 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
1089 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
1090 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
1098 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
1100 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
1102 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
1104 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
1106 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
1108 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
1110 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
1111 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
1112 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
1114 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
1116 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
1118 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
1119 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
1121 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
1123 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
1124 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
1126 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
1128 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
1130 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
1132 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
1134 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
1136 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
1138 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
1140 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
1142 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
1144 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
1145 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
1146 file was on a different device.
1149 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
1151 * Changes to the distribution
1153 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
1155 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
1157 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
1159 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
1161 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
1163 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
1166 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
1168 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
1169 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
1170 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
1171 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
1172 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
1173 items like the versioned share directory name
1174 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
1176 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
1177 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
1178 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
1179 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
1180 with each micro release during a stable series.
1182 ** Thread implementation has changed.
1184 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
1185 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
1186 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
1187 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
1188 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
1191 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
1192 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
1193 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
1194 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
1197 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
1198 in which case "null" threads are used.
1200 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
1201 "Blocking", and others.
1203 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
1205 This is a milder form of deprecation.
1207 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
1208 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
1209 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
1210 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
1211 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
1213 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
1214 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
1216 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
1218 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
1219 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
1221 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
1224 This SRFI is always available.
1226 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
1228 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
1229 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
1230 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
1231 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
1234 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
1236 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
1237 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
1238 parameters without currying.
1240 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
1242 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
1243 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
1245 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
1246 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
1249 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
1250 with a renaming import, for example.
1252 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
1254 The official version is good enough now.
1256 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
1258 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
1259 provided. Use 'make html'.
1261 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
1263 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
1264 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
1265 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
1266 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
1268 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
1270 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
1273 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1275 ** New command line option `-L'.
1277 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
1279 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
1281 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
1282 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
1284 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
1286 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
1287 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
1289 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
1291 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
1292 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
1295 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
1298 (define-module (demo)
1302 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
1305 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1307 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
1309 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
1310 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
1311 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
1313 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
1315 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
1316 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
1318 ** New function hashx-remove!
1320 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
1322 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
1323 barriers and dynamic states.
1325 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
1326 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
1327 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
1330 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
1331 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
1332 Barriers" in the manual.
1334 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
1335 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
1337 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
1339 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
1340 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
1341 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
1342 variable %load-path.
1344 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
1346 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
1347 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
1349 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
1350 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
1351 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
1353 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
1354 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
1356 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
1357 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
1358 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
1360 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
1361 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
1362 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
1365 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
1366 substrings and read-only strings.
1368 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
1369 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
1372 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
1374 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
1383 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
1384 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
1385 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
1387 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
1388 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
1389 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
1390 on an ANSI terminal:
1392 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
1393 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
1396 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
1398 See the manual for details.
1400 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
1402 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
1405 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
1407 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
1408 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
1409 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
1410 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
1412 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
1413 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
1414 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
1417 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
1419 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
1420 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
1431 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
1435 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
1440 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
1444 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
1448 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
1451 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
1452 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
1453 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
1454 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
1456 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
1457 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
1460 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
1463 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
1467 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
1469 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
1470 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
1471 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
1474 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
1477 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
1479 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
1482 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
1483 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
1486 (define-module (foo)
1491 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
1492 has been detected is to
1494 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
1495 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
1496 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
1499 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
1502 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
1504 to your .guile init file.
1506 ** New define-module option: :replace
1508 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
1511 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
1512 for the core binding `format'.
1514 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
1516 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
1517 a prefix to all imported bindings.
1519 (define-module (foo)
1520 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
1522 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
1525 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
1527 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
1528 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
1529 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
1531 ** New function: effective-version
1533 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1534 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1535 to the distribution" above.
1537 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
1539 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
1540 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
1542 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
1544 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
1545 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
1547 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
1549 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
1550 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
1553 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
1555 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
1557 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
1559 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
1560 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
1561 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
1564 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
1565 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
1566 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
1567 'system-async-mark'.
1569 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
1570 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
1572 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
1573 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
1574 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
1577 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
1579 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
1580 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
1583 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
1584 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
1586 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
1587 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
1588 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
1589 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
1590 level for the current thread.
1592 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
1594 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
1596 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
1597 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
1600 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
1602 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
1604 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
1607 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
1609 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
1612 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
1613 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
1614 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
1616 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
1617 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
1618 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
1619 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
1630 ERROR: Numerical overflow
1632 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
1635 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
1637 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
1638 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
1639 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
1650 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
1652 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
1653 them is also done exactly, of course:
1658 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
1659 for exact arguments.
1661 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
1662 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
1664 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
1666 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
1667 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
1668 equal to a floating point number. For example:
1670 (inexact->exact 1.234)
1671 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
1673 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
1675 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
1678 ** New function 'rationalize'.
1680 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
1681 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
1683 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
1686 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
1687 result when both its arguments are exact.
1689 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
1691 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
1692 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
1693 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
1695 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
1697 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
1698 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
1699 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
1701 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
1704 ** pretty-print has more options.
1706 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
1707 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
1708 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
1710 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
1712 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
1713 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
1714 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
1716 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
1718 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
1719 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
1721 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
1723 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
1724 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
1727 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
1729 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
1730 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
1731 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
1732 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
1733 without the soft port blocking.
1735 ** Deprecated: undefine
1737 There is no replacement for undefine.
1739 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
1740 have been discouraged.
1742 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
1743 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
1744 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
1747 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
1749 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
1751 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
1752 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
1753 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
1754 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
1757 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
1758 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
1759 be removed in the next major Guile release.
1761 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
1763 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
1764 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
1765 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
1766 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
1767 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
1768 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
1770 * Changes to the C interface
1772 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
1773 take a 'delete' function argument.
1775 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
1776 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
1778 This is an incompatible change.
1780 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
1782 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
1783 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
1784 --disable-deprecated.
1786 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
1788 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
1789 Scheme values has been added.
1791 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
1792 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
1795 - int scm_is_* (...)
1797 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
1798 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
1800 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
1802 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
1803 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
1806 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
1808 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
1809 scm_from_int for ints.
1811 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
1812 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
1813 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
1815 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
1817 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
1818 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
1819 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
1822 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
1824 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
1826 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
1828 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
1829 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
1830 following alternatives.
1832 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
1833 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
1834 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
1835 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
1837 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
1838 do the validating for you.
1840 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
1841 have been discouraged.
1843 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
1844 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
1847 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
1849 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
1850 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
1853 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
1855 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
1858 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
1861 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
1863 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
1864 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
1866 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
1867 scm_truncate_number should have.
1869 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
1870 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
1872 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
1875 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
1876 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
1877 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
1879 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
1880 easier to use from C.
1882 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
1883 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
1885 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
1886 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
1887 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
1890 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
1891 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
1892 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
1893 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
1896 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
1897 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
1898 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
1899 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
1900 and is thus quite efficient.
1902 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
1904 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
1905 about the character encoding.
1907 Replace according to the following table:
1909 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
1910 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
1911 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
1912 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
1913 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
1914 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
1915 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
1916 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
1917 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
1919 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
1920 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
1922 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
1924 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
1925 now also available to C code.
1927 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
1929 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
1930 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
1931 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
1933 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
1936 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
1938 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
1939 unceremoniously removed.
1941 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
1942 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
1943 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
1945 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
1946 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
1947 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1948 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1949 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
1950 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
1953 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
1955 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
1956 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
1957 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
1958 manual for more details.
1960 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1961 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1963 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
1964 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
1965 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1967 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
1969 Migrate according to the following table:
1971 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
1972 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
1973 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
1974 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
1975 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
1976 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
1977 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
1979 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
1980 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
1981 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
1982 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
1983 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
1984 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
1985 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
1987 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
1989 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
1990 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
1992 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
1993 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
1994 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
1995 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
1997 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
1999 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
2000 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
2001 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
2003 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
2004 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
2006 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
2007 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
2008 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
2009 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
2011 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
2013 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
2014 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
2015 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
2016 prevent a potential memory leak:
2023 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
2025 mem = scm_malloc (100);
2026 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
2028 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
2029 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
2036 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
2037 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
2041 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
2043 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
2045 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
2046 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
2047 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
2049 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2050 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
2052 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
2054 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
2056 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
2057 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
2058 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
2060 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
2061 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
2063 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
2064 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
2065 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
2066 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
2069 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
2071 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
2072 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2073 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
2075 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
2077 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
2078 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
2080 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
2082 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
2083 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
2085 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
2087 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
2088 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
2089 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
2091 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
2093 You should not have used them.
2095 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
2097 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
2098 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
2100 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
2102 This macro is not intended for public use.
2104 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
2106 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
2108 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
2110 Use scm_is_real instead.
2112 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
2114 Use scm_is_complex instead.
2116 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
2118 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
2119 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
2121 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
2122 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
2124 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
2125 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
2127 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
2129 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
2132 ** New function: scm_effective_version
2134 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2135 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2136 to the distribution" above.
2138 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
2140 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
2141 arguments are now passed directly:
2143 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
2145 This is an incompatible change.
2147 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
2149 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
2150 function in the init section.
2152 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
2154 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
2156 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
2157 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
2158 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
2159 stays roughly constant.
2161 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
2162 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
2163 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
2164 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
2165 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
2168 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
2169 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
2170 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
2171 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
2173 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
2174 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
2175 objects for every type.
2178 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
2180 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
2182 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
2184 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
2185 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
2186 initializes a new cell (see below).
2188 ** New functions for memory management
2190 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
2191 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
2192 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
2193 cause aborts in long running programs.
2195 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
2196 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
2198 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
2199 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
2200 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
2201 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
2202 details and for upgrading instructions.
2204 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
2205 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
2206 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
2208 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
2210 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
2211 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
2212 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
2213 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
2214 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
2216 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
2217 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
2218 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
2220 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
2221 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
2223 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
2225 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
2226 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
2227 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
2228 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
2229 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
2231 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
2233 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
2236 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
2238 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
2240 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
2242 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
2243 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
2245 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
2247 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
2248 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
2250 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
2251 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
2253 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
2255 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
2257 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
2258 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
2259 blocking it is not well defined.
2261 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
2263 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
2264 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
2265 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
2266 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
2267 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
2268 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
2269 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
2270 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
2271 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
2272 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
2273 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2274 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
2275 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
2276 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
2277 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
2278 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
2279 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
2280 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2281 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
2282 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
2283 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
2284 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
2285 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
2286 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
2287 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
2288 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
2289 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
2290 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
2291 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
2292 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
2293 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
2295 * Changes to bundled modules
2299 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
2300 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
2301 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
2302 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
2303 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
2306 Changes since Guile 1.4:
2308 * Changes to the distribution
2310 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
2312 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
2314 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
2315 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
2316 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
2317 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
2318 indicate major changes in Guile.
2320 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
2321 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
2322 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
2323 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
2325 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
2326 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
2327 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
2328 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
2329 micro version number.
2331 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
2333 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
2335 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
2336 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
2338 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
2340 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
2341 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
2342 See INSTALL and README for more information.
2344 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
2346 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
2347 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
2348 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
2351 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
2353 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
2356 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
2358 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
2359 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
2361 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
2363 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
2364 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
2367 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
2369 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
2372 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
2375 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
2377 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
2379 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
2380 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
2381 open-output-string, get-output-string.
2383 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
2385 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
2387 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
2390 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
2392 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
2394 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
2396 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
2397 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
2398 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
2400 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
2402 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
2404 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
2405 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
2414 See README there for more info.
2416 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
2417 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
2420 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
2422 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
2424 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
2426 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
2427 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
2428 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
2430 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
2432 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
2433 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
2434 to be named `and-let*', of course.
2436 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
2437 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
2439 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
2442 (oop goops describe)
2444 (oop goops active-slot)
2445 (oop goops composite-slot)
2447 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
2448 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
2449 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
2451 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
2453 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
2454 in the default environment:
2456 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
2457 %read-line write-line
2459 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
2460 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
2462 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
2464 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
2467 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
2468 can be used for similar functionality.
2470 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
2472 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
2473 it defines two procedures:
2475 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
2477 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
2478 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
2479 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
2482 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
2484 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
2485 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
2486 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
2487 write large strings.
2489 ** New module (ice-9 match)
2491 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
2492 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
2494 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
2496 for complete documentation.
2498 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
2500 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
2501 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
2502 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
2503 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
2505 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
2506 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
2510 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
2511 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
2512 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
2515 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
2518 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
2519 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
2521 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
2522 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
2525 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
2528 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
2530 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
2532 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2534 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
2536 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
2537 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
2538 Scheme programs easier.
2540 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
2541 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
2542 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
2543 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
2544 `cond-expand' when using this option.
2547 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
2548 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
2550 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
2553 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
2555 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
2556 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
2557 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
2560 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2562 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
2564 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
2565 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
2566 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
2567 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
2568 was also ASCII, for example.
2570 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
2572 tag - no replacement.
2573 fseek - replaced by seek.
2574 list* - replaced by cons*.
2576 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
2580 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
2581 (define m (make-safe-module))
2582 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
2583 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
2584 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
2586 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
2588 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
2589 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
2590 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
2592 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
2594 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
2595 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
2596 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
2597 from the issues related to the module system.
2599 *** New function: load-extension
2601 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
2603 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
2605 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
2606 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
2607 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
2609 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
2611 This function registers a initialization function for use by
2612 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
2613 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
2614 support dynamic linking).
2616 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
2618 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
2619 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
2620 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
2621 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
2624 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
2625 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
2626 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
2627 library and initialize it explicitly.
2629 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
2630 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
2632 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
2634 (define-module (foo bar))
2636 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
2638 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
2640 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
2641 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
2643 (scheme-report-environment 5)
2644 (null-environment 5)
2645 (interaction-environment)
2651 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
2653 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
2654 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
2655 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
2656 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
2658 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
2659 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
2660 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
2661 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
2662 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
2663 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
2664 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
2665 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
2666 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
2667 one eval to the next.
2669 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
2670 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
2671 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
2672 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
2673 subforms are at the top-level as well.
2675 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
2676 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
2677 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
2678 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
2679 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
2680 used in a lexical environment.
2682 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
2683 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
2684 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
2685 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
2686 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
2687 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
2689 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
2691 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
2692 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
2693 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
2694 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
2695 new facilities: selection and renaming.
2697 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
2698 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
2699 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
2701 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
2702 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
2704 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
2705 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
2706 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
2708 (remove-if . zonk-y)
2709 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
2711 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
2712 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
2713 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
2714 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
2717 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
2718 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
2719 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
2720 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
2722 (remove-if . zonk-y)
2723 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
2724 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
2726 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
2727 ;; and all four by upcasing.
2728 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
2729 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
2730 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
2732 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
2734 (remove-if . zonk-y)
2735 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
2736 :renamer upcase-symbol))
2738 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
2739 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
2740 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
2742 See manual for more info.
2744 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
2746 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
2747 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
2748 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
2750 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
2752 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
2753 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
2754 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
2756 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
2757 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
2758 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
2759 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
2761 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
2763 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
2764 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
2766 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
2767 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
2768 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
2769 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
2770 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
2773 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
2774 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
2775 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
2776 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
2777 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
2778 successful and #f if it wasn't.
2780 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
2781 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
2782 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
2783 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
2784 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
2786 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
2787 objects are usually permanent.
2789 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
2790 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
2792 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
2794 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
2795 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
2798 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
2802 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
2807 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
2809 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
2810 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
2811 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
2812 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
2814 ** New function `make-object-property'
2816 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
2817 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
2821 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
2822 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
2826 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
2827 source properties eventually.
2829 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
2831 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
2832 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
2833 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
2835 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
2836 will be removed in the next release.
2838 ** New define-module option: pure
2840 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
2845 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
2848 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
2850 Export names NAME1 ...
2852 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
2853 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
2857 (define-module (foo)
2859 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
2862 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
2867 ** New function: object->string OBJ
2869 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
2871 ** New function: port? X
2873 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
2874 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
2876 ** New function: file-port?
2878 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
2880 ** New function: port-for-each proc
2882 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
2883 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
2884 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
2885 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
2886 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
2888 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
2890 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
2891 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
2892 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
2893 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
2894 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
2897 ** New function: close-fdes fd
2899 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
2900 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
2901 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
2902 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
2905 ** New function: crypt password salt
2907 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
2910 ** New function: chroot path
2912 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
2914 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
2916 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
2919 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
2921 Get or set the priority of the running process.
2923 ** New function: getpass prompt
2925 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
2928 ** New function: flock file operation
2930 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
2932 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
2934 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
2937 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
2939 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
2940 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
2941 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
2942 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
2943 of the temporary file.
2945 ** New function: open-input-string string
2947 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
2948 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
2949 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
2951 ** New function: open-output-string
2953 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
2954 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
2956 ** New function: get-output-string
2958 Return the contents of an output string port.
2960 ** New function: identity
2962 Return the argument.
2964 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
2965 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
2967 ** New function: inet-pton family address
2969 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
2970 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
2971 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2974 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
2975 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
2977 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
2979 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
2980 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
2981 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2984 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
2985 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
2986 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
2990 Use `identity' instead.
2996 ** Deprecated: return-it
3000 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
3002 Use `string-length' instead.
3004 ** Deprecated: flags
3006 Use `logior' instead.
3008 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
3010 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
3011 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
3012 port-for-each is more flexible.
3014 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
3015 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
3016 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
3018 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
3020 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
3022 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
3024 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
3026 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
3028 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
3029 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
3031 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
3032 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
3034 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
3035 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
3037 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
3039 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
3040 Removed function: builtin-bindings
3042 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
3043 Use module system operations for all variables.
3045 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
3047 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
3050 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
3052 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
3053 The following bugs have been fixed:
3055 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
3056 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
3059 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
3060 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
3061 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
3063 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
3064 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
3066 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
3067 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
3070 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
3071 The expansion used to be like so:
3073 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
3075 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
3077 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
3079 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
3080 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
3082 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
3084 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
3085 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
3086 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
3090 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
3091 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
3093 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
3098 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
3099 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
3101 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
3102 and `d', other keywords allowed.
3103 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
3105 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
3108 * Changes to the C interface
3110 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
3112 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
3113 with "_t". What a concept.
3115 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
3117 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
3119 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
3123 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
3124 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
3126 *** C Functions removed
3128 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
3129 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
3130 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
3131 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
3132 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
3133 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
3134 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
3136 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
3138 Use scm_mem2string instead.
3140 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
3142 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
3144 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
3145 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
3147 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
3149 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
3152 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
3154 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
3156 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
3158 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
3159 Evaluation" in the manual.
3161 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
3163 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
3164 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
3166 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
3168 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
3169 Constructors" in the manual.
3171 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
3173 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
3174 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
3176 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
3178 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
3180 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
3181 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
3182 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
3184 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
3186 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
3188 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
3189 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
3190 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
3193 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
3195 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
3197 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
3198 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
3200 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
3202 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
3203 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
3204 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
3205 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
3207 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
3208 scm_primitive_property_ref
3209 scm_primitive_property_set_x
3210 scm_primitive_property_del_x
3212 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
3213 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
3215 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
3217 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
3218 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
3219 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
3220 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
3222 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
3224 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
3225 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
3226 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
3227 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
3228 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
3229 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
3230 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
3232 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
3233 scm_remember_upto_here
3235 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
3237 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
3239 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
3240 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
3242 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
3244 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
3246 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
3248 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
3250 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
3252 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
3253 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
3254 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
3255 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
3256 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
3257 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
3259 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
3261 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
3263 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
3264 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
3265 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
3267 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
3269 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
3270 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
3271 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
3273 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
3275 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
3276 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
3279 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
3282 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
3283 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
3286 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
3288 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
3290 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
3292 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
3294 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
3296 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
3298 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
3299 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
3300 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
3301 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3302 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
3303 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
3304 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
3305 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3306 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
3307 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
3308 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
3309 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
3310 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
3311 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
3312 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
3314 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
3315 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
3316 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
3317 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
3318 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
3319 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
3320 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
3321 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
3322 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
3323 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
3324 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
3325 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
3326 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
3327 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
3328 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
3329 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
3330 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
3331 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
3332 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
3333 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
3334 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
3335 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
3336 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
3337 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
3338 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
3339 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
3340 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
3341 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
3342 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
3344 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
3346 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
3348 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
3349 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
3351 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
3353 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
3355 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
3357 Use scm_string_hash instead.
3359 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
3361 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
3363 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
3365 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
3367 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
3370 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
3371 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
3373 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
3375 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
3377 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
3379 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
3381 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
3383 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
3385 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
3387 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
3390 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
3392 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
3394 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
3396 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
3397 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
3399 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
3400 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
3402 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
3404 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
3405 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
3406 scm_module_define, scm_define.
3408 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
3410 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
3412 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
3413 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
3415 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
3416 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
3417 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
3418 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
3420 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
3421 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
3422 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
3424 Use the new ones from above instead.
3426 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
3428 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
3429 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
3430 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
3432 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
3433 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
3435 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
3436 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
3439 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
3440 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
3442 Use the new functions instead.
3444 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
3447 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
3449 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
3451 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
3454 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
3456 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
3459 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
3461 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
3464 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
3465 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
3466 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
3468 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
3470 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
3471 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
3473 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
3474 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
3475 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
3476 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
3479 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
3481 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
3482 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
3483 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
3484 inexact for an exact.
3486 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
3487 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
3488 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
3491 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
3492 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
3493 accept an inexact argument.
3495 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
3496 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
3498 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
3501 ** New number validation macros:
3502 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
3506 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
3508 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
3509 scm_unprotect_object.
3511 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
3513 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
3515 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
3518 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
3520 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
3524 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
3526 * Changes to the distribution
3528 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
3530 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
3531 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
3532 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
3533 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
3534 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
3535 obtain these programs.
3536 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
3537 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
3539 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
3540 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
3541 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
3542 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
3543 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
3545 However, this approach means that minor differences between
3546 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
3547 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
3548 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
3552 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
3555 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
3556 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
3557 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
3558 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
3560 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
3562 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
3564 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
3565 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
3567 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
3568 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
3570 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
3571 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
3573 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
3574 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
3575 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
3576 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
3578 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
3580 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
3584 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
3585 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
3587 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
3589 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
3590 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
3592 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
3593 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
3594 number of objects of that kind.
3596 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
3598 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
3599 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
3600 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
3601 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
3602 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
3604 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
3606 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
3608 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
3610 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
3613 ** New module (ice-9 time)
3615 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
3617 ** New module (ice-9 history)
3619 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
3621 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3623 ** New command line option --debug
3625 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
3627 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
3629 ** New help facility
3631 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
3632 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
3633 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
3634 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
3635 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
3636 (help) gives this text
3638 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
3639 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
3641 Examples: (help help)
3643 (help "output-string")
3645 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
3647 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
3649 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
3650 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
3653 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
3654 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
3655 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
3658 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
3659 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
3660 use absolute filenames when possible.
3662 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
3663 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
3664 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
3667 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
3669 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
3670 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
3671 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
3672 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
3674 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
3676 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
3678 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
3679 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
3680 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
3682 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
3683 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
3684 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
3686 (read-enable 'positions)
3687 (debug-enable 'debug)
3689 ** Backtraces in scripts
3691 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
3695 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
3697 at the top of the script.
3699 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
3700 The second enables backtraces.)
3702 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
3704 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
3705 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
3706 substantially faster than before.
3708 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
3709 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
3711 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
3712 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
3714 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
3716 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
3717 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
3718 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
3720 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
3721 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
3722 when this hook is run in the future.
3724 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
3725 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
3727 ** Improvements to garbage collector
3729 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
3730 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
3733 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
3734 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
3735 more and more memory for certain programs.)
3737 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
3738 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
3740 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
3741 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
3743 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
3744 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
3745 in order not to need further allocation.)
3747 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
3750 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
3751 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
3752 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
3753 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
3755 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
3757 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
3760 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
3762 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
3765 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
3766 GC in percent of total heap size
3769 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
3770 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
3772 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
3774 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
3775 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
3777 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
3779 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
3780 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
3782 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
3784 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
3785 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
3789 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
3790 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
3792 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
3794 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3796 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
3798 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
3800 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
3802 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
3803 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
3805 (simple-format port message . args)
3806 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
3807 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
3808 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
3809 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
3810 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
3811 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
3812 Does not add a trailing newline."
3814 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
3816 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
3817 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
3819 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
3820 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
3822 ** Deprecated: list*
3824 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
3826 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
3828 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
3829 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
3831 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
3832 is returned as result.
3834 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
3836 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
3838 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
3840 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
3841 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
3844 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
3846 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
3848 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
3849 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
3851 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3853 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
3855 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
3857 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3859 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
3861 Thanks to Greg Badros!
3863 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3865 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3866 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
3867 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
3869 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
3872 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
3874 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
3875 the readability of argument checking.
3877 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
3879 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
3881 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
3883 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
3884 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
3885 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
3886 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
3887 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
3888 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
3889 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
3891 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
3893 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
3895 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
3896 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
3898 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
3900 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
3901 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
3904 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
3906 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
3907 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
3908 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
3910 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
3911 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
3912 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
3914 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
3915 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
3916 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
3917 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
3918 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
3919 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
3920 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
3922 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
3923 scm_end_input (object);
3924 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
3925 ptob->flush (object);
3927 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
3928 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
3931 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
3933 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
3935 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
3936 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
3937 removed in a future version.
3939 ** The format of error message strings has changed
3941 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
3942 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
3943 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
3944 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
3946 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
3947 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
3949 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
3952 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
3954 in your configure.in.
3956 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
3961 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
3967 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
3969 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
3973 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
3974 (define make-message string-append)
3976 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
3978 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
3982 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
3987 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
3991 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
3993 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
3994 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
3996 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
3998 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
3999 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
4000 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
4001 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
4002 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
4003 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
4005 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
4006 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
4007 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
4009 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
4010 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
4011 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
4014 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
4015 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
4016 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
4017 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
4018 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
4020 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
4021 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
4022 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
4023 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
4024 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
4025 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
4026 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
4028 Destructors are not yet implemented.
4030 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
4031 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
4032 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
4034 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
4035 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
4036 KEY in the calling thread.
4038 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
4039 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
4040 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
4041 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
4042 associated with the key.
4044 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
4046 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
4047 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
4049 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
4051 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
4052 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
4053 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
4055 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
4057 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
4058 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
4060 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
4062 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
4064 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
4065 returned is undefined.
4067 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
4068 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
4069 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
4071 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
4072 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
4073 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
4075 ** New C level GC hooks
4077 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
4079 scm_before_gc_c_hook
4082 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
4083 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
4084 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
4086 scm_before_mark_c_hook
4087 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
4088 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
4090 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
4091 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
4094 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
4096 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
4097 allocation parameters
4099 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
4100 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
4101 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
4105 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
4106 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
4107 scm_default_max_segment_size
4109 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
4111 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
4112 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
4114 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
4116 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
4117 object and count on the object being protected until
4118 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
4120 The functions also have better time complexity.
4122 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
4123 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
4124 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
4125 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
4126 are no longer needed.
4128 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
4130 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
4131 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
4132 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
4133 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
4135 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
4137 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
4139 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
4141 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
4142 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
4143 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
4144 until this issue has been settled.
4146 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
4148 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
4150 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
4153 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
4155 * Changes to system call interfaces:
4157 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
4158 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
4159 descriptors were checked.
4161 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
4162 atomically written to a pipe.
4164 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
4165 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
4166 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
4167 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
4168 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
4169 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
4170 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
4173 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
4174 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
4175 is changed without calling tzset.
4177 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
4179 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
4180 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
4181 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
4183 (define write-network-long
4184 (lambda (value port)
4185 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
4186 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
4187 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
4189 (define read-network-long
4191 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
4192 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
4193 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
4195 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
4196 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
4198 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
4199 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
4200 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
4201 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
4203 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
4204 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
4205 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
4206 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
4210 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
4212 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4216 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
4217 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
4218 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
4224 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
4225 for a description of available commands.
4227 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
4228 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
4229 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
4231 (debug-enable 'backwards)
4233 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
4234 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
4236 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
4238 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
4240 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
4241 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
4242 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
4243 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
4244 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
4245 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
4248 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
4250 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
4251 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
4252 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
4253 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
4255 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
4256 the file and should not be affected by this change.
4258 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
4260 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4262 ** Readline support has changed again.
4264 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
4265 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
4266 to activate readline is now
4268 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
4271 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
4273 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
4274 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
4275 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
4278 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
4279 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
4280 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
4283 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
4284 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
4285 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
4286 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
4287 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
4288 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
4290 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
4291 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
4293 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
4295 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
4296 object it receives is the same string passed to
4297 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
4298 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
4299 string, not the suffix.
4301 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
4302 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
4303 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
4305 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
4307 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
4308 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
4309 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
4310 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
4313 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
4315 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
4317 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
4318 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
4319 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
4320 appear from left to right.
4322 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
4325 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
4327 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
4328 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
4330 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
4334 *** New function: hook? OBJ
4336 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
4338 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
4340 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
4341 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
4342 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
4344 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
4346 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
4348 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
4350 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
4353 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
4355 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
4356 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
4357 mentioning it here anyway.
4359 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
4361 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
4362 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
4363 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
4364 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
4367 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
4369 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
4371 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
4373 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
4374 otherwise return #f.
4376 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
4378 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
4379 returned by `opendir'.
4381 ** New function: using-readline?
4383 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
4385 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
4387 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
4388 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
4390 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4392 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
4394 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
4395 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
4396 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
4398 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
4400 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
4401 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
4403 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
4405 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
4406 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
4407 documentation slots are not yet used.
4409 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
4411 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
4412 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
4413 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
4418 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
4419 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
4420 (string-append x y))
4422 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
4423 can also be used for concatenating strings.
4425 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
4426 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
4427 be made in a clean way.]
4429 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
4431 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
4433 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
4435 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
4436 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
4438 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4440 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
4442 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
4444 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
4446 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
4447 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
4448 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
4449 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
4452 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4454 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
4456 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
4458 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
4460 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
4461 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
4463 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4465 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
4467 Evaluates the body of a special form.
4469 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
4471 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
4472 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
4473 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
4474 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
4475 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
4476 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
4478 This should not make any difference for most users.
4480 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
4482 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
4483 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
4485 *** New functions for applying generic functions
4487 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
4488 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
4489 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
4490 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
4491 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
4493 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
4495 It is now replaced by:
4497 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
4499 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4500 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4502 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4504 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
4505 This might change when we get the new module system.
4507 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
4511 Changes since Guile 1.3:
4513 * Changes to mailing lists
4515 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
4517 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
4520 * Changes to the distribution
4522 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
4524 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
4525 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
4526 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
4527 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
4528 you explicitly specify it.
4530 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
4531 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
4532 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
4533 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
4534 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
4537 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
4538 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
4539 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
4540 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
4542 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
4543 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
4544 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
4547 You can activate the readline support by issuing
4549 (use-modules (readline-activator))
4552 from your ".guile" file, for example.
4554 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4556 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
4557 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
4558 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
4559 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
4561 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
4562 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
4565 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4567 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
4568 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
4569 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
4570 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
4571 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
4572 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
4573 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
4574 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
4586 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
4587 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
4588 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
4589 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
4590 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
4595 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
4596 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
4604 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
4609 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
4610 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
4613 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
4614 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
4615 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
4616 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
4618 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
4620 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
4622 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
4623 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
4625 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
4627 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
4629 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
4630 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
4632 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
4635 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
4637 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
4639 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
4641 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
4643 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
4645 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
4647 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
4648 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
4649 when the hook was created.
4651 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
4652 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
4653 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
4654 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
4655 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
4656 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
4657 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
4658 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
4659 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
4661 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
4662 the dlopen family of functions.
4664 ** New function `provided?'
4666 - Function: provided? FEATURE
4667 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
4668 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
4669 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
4671 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
4673 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
4674 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
4675 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
4676 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
4679 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
4680 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
4681 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
4682 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
4684 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
4685 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
4686 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
4689 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
4690 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
4691 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
4692 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
4693 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
4694 but with the flag set.
4696 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
4698 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
4699 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
4701 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
4702 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
4703 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
4704 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
4705 available Scheme format implementations.
4707 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
4708 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
4709 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
4710 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
4711 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
4712 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
4713 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
4714 output is to the current error port if available by the
4715 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
4718 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
4719 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
4720 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
4721 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
4722 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
4723 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
4724 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
4725 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
4727 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
4728 be executed at a time.
4731 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
4733 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
4734 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
4735 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
4737 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
4738 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
4739 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
4740 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
4741 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
4742 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
4743 general form of a directive is:
4745 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
4747 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
4749 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4751 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
4752 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
4753 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
4756 Any (print as `display' does).
4760 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
4764 S-expression (print as `write' does).
4768 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
4774 print number sign always.
4777 print comma separated.
4779 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
4785 print number sign always.
4788 print comma separated.
4790 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
4796 print number sign always.
4799 print comma separated.
4801 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
4807 print number sign always.
4810 print comma separated.
4812 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
4817 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
4821 print a number as a Roman numeral.
4824 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
4827 print a number as an ordinal English number.
4830 print a number as a cardinal English number.
4835 prints `y' and `ies'.
4838 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4841 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4846 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
4850 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
4853 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
4854 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
4856 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4859 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
4860 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
4862 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4865 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
4867 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
4869 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4872 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
4874 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
4876 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4879 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
4882 The sign appears before the padding.
4890 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
4892 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
4897 print N page separators.
4907 newline is ignored, white space left.
4910 newline is left, white space ignored.
4915 relative tabulation.
4921 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
4923 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
4926 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
4928 converts by `string-capitalize'.
4931 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
4934 converts by `string-upcase'.
4937 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
4939 jumps N arguments forward.
4942 jumps 1 argument backward.
4945 jumps N arguments backward.
4948 jumps to the 0th argument.
4951 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
4953 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
4954 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
4956 take argument from N.
4959 true test conditional.
4962 if-else-then conditional.
4968 default clause follows.
4971 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
4973 at most N iterations.
4976 args from next arg (a list of lists).
4979 args from the rest of arguments.
4982 args from the rest args (lists).
4993 aborts if N <= M <= K
4995 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4998 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5001 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5007 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
5009 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
5011 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
5012 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
5013 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
5014 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
5015 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
5016 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
5020 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
5024 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
5030 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
5033 Print a `#\space' character
5035 print N `#\space' characters.
5038 Print a `#\tab' character
5040 print N `#\tab' characters.
5043 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
5044 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
5045 must be a positive decimal number.
5048 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5049 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5050 be processed by `read'.
5053 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5054 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5055 be processed by `read'.
5058 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
5061 prints format version.
5064 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
5065 and format it accordingly.
5067 *** Configuration Variables
5069 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
5070 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
5071 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
5072 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
5075 format:symbol-case-conv
5076 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
5077 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
5078 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
5079 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
5080 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
5082 format:iobj-case-conv
5083 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
5084 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
5087 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
5090 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
5096 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
5097 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
5098 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
5099 `format' padding style.
5102 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
5103 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
5104 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
5105 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
5109 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
5110 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
5111 directive parameters or modifiers)).
5114 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
5115 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
5116 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
5117 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
5118 parameters or modifiers)).
5121 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
5123 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
5125 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
5126 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
5128 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
5129 string-downcase! functions.
5131 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
5132 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
5134 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
5137 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
5140 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
5141 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
5143 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
5145 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
5146 the symbol had be read by `read'.
5148 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
5149 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
5150 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
5151 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
5152 would if STRING were input.
5154 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
5156 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
5157 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
5158 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
5159 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
5162 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
5164 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
5165 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
5168 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
5170 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
5171 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
5173 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
5174 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
5176 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
5177 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
5178 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
5179 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
5181 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
5182 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
5184 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
5185 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
5186 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
5188 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
5189 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
5191 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
5192 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
5193 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
5194 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
5195 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
5197 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
5198 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
5199 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
5200 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
5201 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
5202 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
5204 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
5205 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
5206 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
5209 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
5210 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
5211 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
5212 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
5213 the following grammar:
5214 ((apples (single-char #\a))
5215 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
5216 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
5217 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
5218 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
5219 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
5220 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
5221 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
5222 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
5223 last option in its combination)
5225 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
5226 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
5227 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
5228 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
5230 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
5231 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
5232 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
5234 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
5235 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
5236 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
5238 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
5239 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
5240 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
5241 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
5242 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
5243 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
5244 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
5245 ordinary argument strings.
5247 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
5248 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
5249 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
5250 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
5252 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
5253 as a list, associated with the empty list.
5255 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
5256 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
5257 - a required option is omitted
5258 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
5259 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
5260 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
5261 - an option predicate fails
5266 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
5269 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
5270 (verbose (required? #f)
5273 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
5274 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
5275 (predicate ,string?))))
5277 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
5278 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
5280 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
5281 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
5282 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
5283 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
5286 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
5288 It will be removed in a few releases.
5290 ** New syntax: lambda*
5291 ** New syntax: define*
5292 ** New syntax: define*-public
5293 ** New syntax: defmacro*
5294 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
5295 Guile now supports optional arguments.
5297 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
5298 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
5299 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
5300 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
5301 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
5303 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
5304 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
5305 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
5307 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
5309 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
5310 and examples for `lambda*':
5313 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
5315 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
5316 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
5317 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
5318 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
5319 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
5320 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
5321 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
5322 can be checked with the bound? macro.
5324 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
5326 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
5327 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
5328 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
5329 are given as keywords are bound to values.
5331 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
5332 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
5333 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
5334 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
5335 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
5336 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
5337 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
5338 and until the procedure is called.
5340 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
5342 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
5343 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
5344 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
5345 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
5346 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
5347 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
5348 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
5349 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
5350 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
5351 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
5353 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
5354 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
5355 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
5356 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
5359 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
5361 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
5362 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
5363 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
5364 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
5366 ** New syntax: and-let*
5367 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
5369 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
5370 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
5371 (<variable> <expression>)
5374 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
5375 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
5376 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
5379 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
5380 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
5381 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
5382 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
5383 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
5384 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
5385 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
5387 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
5388 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
5389 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
5390 shadow earlier bindings.
5392 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
5394 ** New sorting functions
5396 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
5397 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
5398 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
5399 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
5401 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
5402 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
5405 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
5406 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
5407 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
5409 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
5410 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
5411 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
5412 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
5414 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
5415 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
5416 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
5417 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
5418 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
5421 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
5422 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
5423 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
5424 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
5425 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
5426 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
5428 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
5429 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
5430 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
5432 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
5433 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
5434 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
5437 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
5438 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
5439 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
5441 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
5442 Added for compatibility with scsh.
5444 ** New built-in random number support
5446 *** New function: random N [STATE]
5447 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
5448 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
5449 returned have a uniform distribution.
5451 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
5452 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
5453 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
5454 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
5455 effect of the `random' operation.
5457 *** New variable: *random-state*
5458 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
5459 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
5460 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
5461 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
5462 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
5465 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
5466 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
5467 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
5468 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
5469 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
5471 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
5472 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
5473 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
5474 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
5475 initialized using SEED.
5477 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
5478 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
5479 range between 0 and 1.
5481 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
5482 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
5483 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
5484 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
5485 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
5486 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
5487 or a uniform vector of doubles.
5489 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
5490 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
5491 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
5492 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
5493 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
5494 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
5496 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
5497 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
5498 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
5499 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
5501 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
5502 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
5503 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
5504 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
5506 *** New function: random:exp STATE
5507 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
5508 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
5510 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
5512 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
5515 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
5516 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
5519 ** New function: make-guardian
5520 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
5521 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
5522 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
5523 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
5524 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
5526 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
5527 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
5528 one object if at all.
5530 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
5531 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
5532 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
5534 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
5535 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
5536 read again in last-in first-out order.
5538 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
5539 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
5541 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
5543 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
5544 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
5545 file position is used.
5547 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
5548 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
5549 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
5551 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
5552 redefined using seek.
5554 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
5555 size is not supplied.
5557 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
5558 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
5560 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
5561 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
5563 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
5565 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
5566 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
5567 and returns the contents as a single string.
5569 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
5570 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
5571 lists in serial order.
5573 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
5574 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
5575 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
5577 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
5578 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
5579 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
5580 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
5582 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
5583 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
5584 and #f if an error occured.
5586 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
5588 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
5589 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
5590 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
5591 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
5593 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
5595 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
5598 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
5600 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
5603 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5607 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
5608 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
5610 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
5611 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
5615 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5617 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
5619 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
5620 binds a variable named NAME to it.
5622 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
5624 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
5625 might change when we get the new module system.
5627 ** The smob interface
5629 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
5630 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
5632 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
5634 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
5638 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
5639 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
5640 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
5641 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
5642 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
5643 will be freed by the default free function.
5645 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
5646 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
5647 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5648 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5650 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
5651 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
5652 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5653 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5655 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
5657 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
5658 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
5662 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
5663 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5664 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5666 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
5667 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
5668 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5669 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5671 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
5672 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
5673 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
5675 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
5676 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
5677 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
5678 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
5680 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
5681 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
5682 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
5684 *** scm_newptob has been removed
5688 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
5690 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
5691 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
5692 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
5694 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
5695 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
5696 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
5698 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
5699 a string port's buffer.
5701 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
5702 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
5703 function pointers which together define the current random number
5704 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
5705 number library functions.
5707 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
5710 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
5711 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
5714 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
5715 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
5717 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
5718 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
5720 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
5721 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
5724 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
5725 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
5726 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
5727 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
5729 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
5730 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
5731 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
5732 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
5733 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
5734 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
5735 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
5737 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
5738 by libguile and the application.
5740 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
5741 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
5742 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
5743 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
5745 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
5746 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
5748 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
5749 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
5750 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
5752 ** Random number library functions
5753 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
5754 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
5755 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
5757 The default random state is stored in:
5759 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
5760 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
5761 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
5766 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
5768 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
5769 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
5770 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
5771 isn't a random state.
5773 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
5774 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
5776 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
5777 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
5778 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
5779 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
5781 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5782 Return 32 random bits.
5784 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5785 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
5787 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5788 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
5790 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5791 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
5793 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
5794 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
5796 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
5797 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
5798 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
5802 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
5804 * Changes to the distribution
5806 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
5807 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
5808 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
5811 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
5812 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
5813 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
5815 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
5816 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
5817 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
5818 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
5821 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
5822 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
5823 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
5825 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5827 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
5829 *** Function: batch-mode?
5831 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
5834 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
5836 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
5837 case has not been implemented.
5839 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
5840 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
5841 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
5844 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
5845 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
5847 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
5849 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5851 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
5853 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
5854 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
5857 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
5858 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
5859 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
5860 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
5863 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
5865 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
5866 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
5867 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
5868 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
5869 find those libraries.
5871 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
5872 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
5875 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
5877 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
5878 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
5879 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
5880 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
5882 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
5883 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
5884 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
5888 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
5890 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
5891 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
5892 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
5895 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
5896 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
5897 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
5898 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
5900 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
5901 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
5904 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
5905 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
5906 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
5907 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
5908 compiler where to find the libraries.
5910 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
5911 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
5912 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
5914 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
5915 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
5916 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
5917 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
5918 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
5922 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5924 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
5925 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
5926 internationalization support.
5928 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
5929 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
5930 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
5931 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
5932 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
5934 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
5935 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
5936 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
5937 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
5938 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
5940 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
5941 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
5942 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
5943 any GNU mirror site.
5945 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
5947 ** New function: add-history STRING
5948 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
5949 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
5950 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
5952 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
5954 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
5955 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
5956 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
5959 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
5960 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
5961 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
5963 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
5965 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
5968 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
5969 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
5972 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
5973 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
5974 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
5975 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
5976 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
5977 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
5979 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
5980 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
5981 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
5982 of the form mentioned above.
5984 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
5985 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
5986 returned in the special `rest' list.
5988 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
5989 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
5991 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
5993 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
5995 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
5997 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
5998 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
5999 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
6000 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
6001 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
6002 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
6003 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
6004 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
6007 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
6009 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
6011 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
6012 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
6015 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
6016 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
6017 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
6021 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
6022 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
6023 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
6024 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
6025 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
6026 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
6027 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
6028 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
6031 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
6033 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
6034 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
6035 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
6037 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
6039 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
6040 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
6042 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
6043 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
6044 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
6046 Why do we have this function?
6047 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
6048 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
6049 primitive, and display it differently, and
6050 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
6051 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
6054 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
6055 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
6058 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
6059 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
6060 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
6061 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
6063 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
6064 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
6067 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
6068 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
6070 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
6072 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
6073 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
6074 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
6075 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
6076 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
6077 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
6078 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
6081 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
6083 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
6084 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
6086 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
6087 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
6088 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
6089 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
6090 properly continue the print chain.
6092 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
6093 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
6094 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
6095 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
6096 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
6097 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
6098 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
6099 print-state, it is simply ignored.
6101 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
6102 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
6103 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
6104 safest to not check for these pairs.
6106 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
6107 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
6108 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
6109 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
6111 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
6113 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
6114 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
6116 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
6118 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
6120 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
6121 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
6122 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
6124 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
6125 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
6126 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
6128 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
6129 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
6130 the following functions and macros:
6132 Function: make-fluid
6134 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
6135 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
6136 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
6137 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
6138 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
6140 Function: fluid? OBJ
6142 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
6144 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
6145 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
6147 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
6148 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
6150 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
6152 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
6153 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
6154 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
6155 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
6156 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
6157 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
6158 modified by `with-fluids*'.
6160 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
6162 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
6163 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
6164 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
6165 should evaluate to a fluid.
6167 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
6169 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
6170 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
6171 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
6172 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
6173 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
6175 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
6178 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
6180 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
6182 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
6184 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
6187 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
6188 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
6189 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
6190 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
6191 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
6194 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
6195 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
6196 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
6198 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
6199 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
6200 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
6202 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
6203 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
6204 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
6205 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
6207 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
6208 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
6209 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
6210 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
6212 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
6213 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
6214 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
6215 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
6217 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
6218 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
6219 their revealed counts set to zero.
6221 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6222 Returns an integer file descriptor.
6224 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6225 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
6227 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6228 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
6230 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6231 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
6232 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
6234 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
6235 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
6236 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
6238 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
6239 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
6240 default environment inherited by child processes.
6242 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
6243 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
6244 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
6246 The return value is unspecified.
6248 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
6249 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
6250 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
6251 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
6252 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
6254 The return value is unspecified.
6256 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
6257 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
6265 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
6266 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
6269 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
6272 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
6273 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
6274 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
6276 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
6277 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
6278 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
6279 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
6282 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
6283 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
6285 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
6286 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
6287 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
6288 the `environ' procedure.
6290 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
6291 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
6294 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
6295 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
6297 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
6298 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
6299 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
6300 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
6302 *** procedure: times
6303 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
6304 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
6305 return a selected component:
6308 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
6312 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
6315 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
6319 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
6320 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
6324 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
6325 terminated child processes.
6327 ** Removed: list-length
6328 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
6329 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
6331 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
6333 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
6335 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
6337 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
6338 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
6339 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
6340 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
6342 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
6343 extra complexity it introduces.
6345 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
6346 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
6348 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
6349 variable to any non-empty value.
6351 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
6352 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
6354 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6356 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
6357 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
6359 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
6361 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
6362 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
6364 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
6366 ** vector handling routines
6368 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
6369 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
6370 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
6371 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
6372 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
6374 ** pair and list routines
6376 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
6379 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
6381 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
6384 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6386 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
6388 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
6389 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
6390 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
6391 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
6392 site-specific initialization code.
6394 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
6395 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
6396 initialization processes.
6398 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
6399 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
6400 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
6401 initialized properly.
6403 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
6404 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
6405 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
6407 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
6408 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
6409 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
6410 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
6411 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
6413 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
6415 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
6416 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
6417 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
6418 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
6419 objects the smob refers to get marked.
6421 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
6422 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
6423 which look like this:
6426 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
6428 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
6429 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
6432 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
6433 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
6436 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
6438 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
6439 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
6440 you will need to change your functions slightly.
6442 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
6443 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
6444 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
6445 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
6446 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
6448 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
6449 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
6451 int (*free) (SCM port);
6452 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
6453 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
6454 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
6458 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
6459 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
6460 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
6462 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
6465 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
6466 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
6467 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
6469 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
6470 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
6471 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
6474 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
6478 struct timeval *timeout);
6480 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
6481 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
6482 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
6483 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
6484 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
6485 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
6487 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
6488 scm_catch_body_t body,
6490 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
6493 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
6494 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
6495 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
6496 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
6497 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
6498 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
6500 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
6502 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
6505 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
6506 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
6507 spawning threads from application C code.
6509 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
6510 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
6511 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
6512 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
6513 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
6514 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
6516 ** Removed functions:
6518 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
6519 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
6521 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
6523 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
6524 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
6526 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
6528 ** mbstrings are now removed
6530 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
6531 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
6533 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
6535 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
6536 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
6537 their new names and arguments:
6539 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
6540 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
6541 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
6542 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
6545 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
6547 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
6549 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
6552 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
6554 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
6555 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
6556 pass a #f arg to catch.
6558 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
6560 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
6561 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
6564 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
6565 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
6566 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
6567 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
6568 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
6569 reclaim its storage.
6571 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
6572 worrying that some other function you call will call
6573 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
6574 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
6575 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
6576 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
6579 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
6581 * Changes to the distribution
6583 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
6584 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
6587 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
6588 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
6590 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
6591 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
6593 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
6595 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
6596 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
6597 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
6599 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6601 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
6602 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
6603 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
6604 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
6605 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
6606 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
6608 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
6609 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
6610 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
6613 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
6614 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
6615 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
6616 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
6618 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
6619 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
6620 libraries to your link command:
6622 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
6623 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
6624 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6625 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6627 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
6628 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
6629 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
6631 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6633 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
6634 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
6637 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
6639 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
6640 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
6641 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
6642 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
6643 searched is system dependent.
6645 (dynamic-object? VAL)
6647 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
6649 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
6651 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
6652 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
6654 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
6656 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
6657 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
6658 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
6659 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
6660 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
6663 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
6665 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
6666 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
6667 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
6668 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
6669 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
6671 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
6673 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
6674 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
6676 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
6678 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
6679 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
6680 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
6683 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
6685 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
6686 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
6687 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
6688 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
6690 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
6691 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
6693 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
6695 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
6696 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
6698 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
6700 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
6701 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
6709 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
6711 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
6712 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
6713 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
6714 a more informative way.
6716 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
6717 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
6718 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
6719 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
6720 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
6721 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
6723 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
6724 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
6727 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
6728 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
6729 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
6732 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
6733 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
6734 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
6735 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
6736 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
6737 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
6739 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
6740 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
6741 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
6742 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
6745 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
6746 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
6747 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
6748 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
6749 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
6750 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
6752 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
6753 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
6754 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
6755 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
6756 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
6758 *** regexp functions
6760 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
6761 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
6762 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
6764 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
6765 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
6766 with SCSH regular expressions.
6768 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
6769 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
6770 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
6771 position of STR at which to begin matching.
6773 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
6774 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
6775 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
6776 `string-match' returns `#f'.
6778 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
6779 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
6780 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
6781 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
6782 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
6783 match strings against the compiled regexp.
6785 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
6786 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
6787 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
6788 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
6789 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
6791 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6793 **** Constant: regexp/extended
6794 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
6795 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
6796 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
6798 **** Constant: regexp/icase
6799 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
6800 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
6802 **** Constant: regexp/newline
6803 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
6805 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
6808 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
6809 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6810 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
6812 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
6813 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6814 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
6816 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
6817 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
6818 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
6819 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
6820 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
6823 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6825 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
6826 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
6827 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
6828 used when different portions of a string are passed to
6829 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
6830 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
6832 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
6833 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
6834 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
6836 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
6837 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
6840 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
6841 and replace them with the contents of another string.
6843 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
6844 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
6845 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
6846 may be one of the following arguments:
6848 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
6850 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
6852 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
6853 the regexp match is written.
6855 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
6856 following the regexp match is written.
6858 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
6859 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
6862 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
6863 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
6864 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
6865 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
6866 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
6867 which should be matched against this regular expression.
6869 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
6872 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
6873 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
6874 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
6875 written out to PORT.
6877 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
6878 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
6879 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
6880 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
6881 will return after processing a single match.
6883 *** Match Structures
6885 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
6886 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
6887 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
6888 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
6889 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
6890 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
6893 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
6894 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
6895 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
6896 information about the original target string that was matched against a
6897 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
6899 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
6900 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
6901 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
6903 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
6904 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
6905 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
6906 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
6907 number N did not match, return `#f'.
6909 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
6910 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
6912 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
6913 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
6915 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
6916 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
6918 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
6919 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
6921 **** Function: match:count MATCH
6922 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
6923 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
6924 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
6926 **** Function: match:string MATCH
6927 Return the original TARGET string.
6929 *** Backslash Escapes
6931 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
6932 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
6933 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
6934 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
6935 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
6936 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
6938 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
6939 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
6940 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
6941 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
6942 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
6943 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
6944 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
6945 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
6947 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
6948 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
6949 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
6950 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
6951 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
6952 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
6953 each match a single backslash in the target string.
6955 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
6956 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
6957 return the resulting string.
6959 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
6960 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
6961 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
6962 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
6963 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
6964 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
6965 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
6966 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
6967 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
6968 translated to the single character `*'.
6970 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
6971 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
6972 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
6973 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
6974 consecutive backslashes:
6976 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
6978 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
6979 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
6980 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
6982 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
6983 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
6984 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
6985 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
6986 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
6987 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
6989 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
6991 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
6992 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
6993 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
6994 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
6995 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
6996 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
6997 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
6998 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
6999 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
7000 cumbersome escape syntax.
7002 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7004 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7006 * Changes to system call interfaces:
7008 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
7011 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
7013 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
7015 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
7018 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
7019 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
7020 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
7021 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
7022 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
7024 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
7025 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
7026 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
7027 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
7028 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
7029 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
7030 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
7033 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
7034 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
7035 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
7038 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
7039 `force-output' on every port open for output.
7041 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
7042 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
7043 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
7044 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
7045 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
7046 installed, you can say:
7048 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
7051 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7053 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
7054 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
7055 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
7056 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
7057 new dynamic roots and threads.
7060 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
7062 * Changes to the distribution.
7064 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
7066 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
7067 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
7068 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
7069 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
7070 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
7071 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
7072 programming language. These are packaged together because the
7073 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
7075 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
7078 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
7079 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
7084 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
7086 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
7087 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
7089 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
7090 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
7091 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
7092 the (command-line) function.
7093 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
7094 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
7095 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
7097 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
7098 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
7099 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
7100 command line arguments
7101 -ds do -s script at this point
7102 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
7103 -h, --help display this help and exit
7104 -v, --version display version information and exit
7105 \ read arguments from following script lines
7107 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
7108 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
7110 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7113 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
7117 (main (command-line))
7119 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
7121 ekko a speckled gecko
7123 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
7124 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
7125 following list of command-line arguments:
7127 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
7129 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
7130 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
7131 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
7132 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
7133 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
7135 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
7137 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
7139 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
7140 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
7143 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
7144 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
7145 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
7146 SCSH) for circumventing them.
7148 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
7149 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
7150 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
7151 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
7153 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
7157 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
7161 If the user invokes this script as follows:
7163 ekko a speckled gecko
7165 Unix expands this into
7167 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
7169 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
7170 read from the second line of the script, producing:
7172 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
7174 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
7175 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
7177 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
7178 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
7179 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
7180 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
7181 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
7182 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
7183 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
7184 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
7185 it only terminates the argument list.)
7186 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
7187 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
7188 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
7189 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
7190 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
7191 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
7192 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
7193 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
7195 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7197 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
7198 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
7199 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
7200 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
7201 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
7203 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
7204 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
7205 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
7207 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
7209 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
7210 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
7211 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
7212 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
7215 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
7216 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7217 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7219 * Changes to Scheme functions
7221 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
7222 and disabled by default.
7224 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
7225 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
7226 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
7227 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
7229 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
7231 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
7233 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
7234 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
7236 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
7237 (read-set! keywords #f)
7239 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
7240 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
7241 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
7244 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
7245 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
7246 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
7249 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
7250 support for Scheme functions.
7252 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
7253 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
7254 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
7255 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
7258 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
7259 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
7260 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
7263 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
7264 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
7265 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
7268 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
7269 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
7270 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
7271 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
7272 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
7273 display the result as a prompt.
7274 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
7276 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
7277 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
7278 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
7281 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
7282 procedure of zero arguments.
7284 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
7285 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
7286 argument is bound in the current module.
7288 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
7289 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
7290 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
7291 public bindings into the current module.
7293 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
7294 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
7296 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
7297 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
7299 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
7300 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
7302 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
7303 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
7305 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
7306 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
7308 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
7309 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
7310 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
7311 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
7312 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
7314 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
7315 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
7316 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
7317 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
7319 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
7322 ** Changes to I/O functions
7324 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
7325 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
7326 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
7328 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
7329 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
7330 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
7332 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
7333 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
7335 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
7336 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
7337 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
7338 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
7340 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
7342 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
7343 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
7345 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
7346 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
7347 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
7348 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
7349 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
7352 'trim omit delimiter from result
7353 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
7354 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
7355 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
7357 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
7359 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
7360 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
7362 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
7363 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
7364 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
7365 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
7366 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
7368 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
7369 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
7370 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
7372 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
7373 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
7374 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
7375 above, and defaults to 'peek.
7377 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
7378 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
7380 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
7381 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
7383 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
7385 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
7386 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
7387 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
7388 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
7389 a delimiting character.
7390 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
7392 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
7393 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
7394 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
7395 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
7396 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
7397 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
7399 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
7400 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
7402 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
7403 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
7404 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
7406 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
7407 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
7408 the array to read and write.
7410 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
7411 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
7414 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
7416 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
7419 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
7420 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
7421 Values for COMMAND are:
7423 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
7424 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
7425 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
7426 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
7427 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
7428 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
7429 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
7430 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
7432 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
7434 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
7435 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
7436 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
7437 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
7438 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
7439 corresponding return set will be the same.
7441 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
7444 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
7445 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
7446 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
7447 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
7448 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
7449 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
7450 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
7451 special file being created.
7453 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
7454 clashing with various SCSH forks.
7456 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
7457 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
7458 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
7459 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
7460 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
7461 and originating address.
7463 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
7464 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
7465 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
7467 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
7470 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
7471 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
7474 (status:exit-val STATUS)
7475 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
7476 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
7477 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
7478 this function returns #f.
7480 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
7481 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
7482 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
7485 (status:term-sig STATUS)
7486 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
7487 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
7490 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
7491 a valid STATUS value.
7493 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
7495 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
7496 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
7498 Component Accessor Setter
7499 ========================= ============ ============
7500 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
7501 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
7502 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
7503 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
7504 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
7505 year tm:year set-tm:year
7506 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
7507 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
7508 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
7509 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
7510 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
7512 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
7513 describing the host system:
7516 ============================================== ================
7517 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
7518 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
7519 release level of the operating system utsname:release
7520 version level of the operating system utsname:version
7521 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
7523 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
7524 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
7525 system's user database:
7528 ====================== =================
7529 user name passwd:name
7530 user password passwd:passwd
7533 real name passwd:gecos
7534 home directory passwd:dir
7535 shell program passwd:shell
7537 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
7538 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
7539 system's group database:
7542 ======================= ============
7543 group name group:name
7544 group password group:passwd
7546 group members group:mem
7548 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
7549 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
7553 ========================= ===============
7554 official name of host hostent:name
7555 alias list hostent:aliases
7556 host address type hostent:addrtype
7557 length of address hostent:length
7558 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
7560 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
7561 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
7565 ========================= ===============
7566 official name of net netent:name
7567 alias list netent:aliases
7568 net number type netent:addrtype
7569 net number netent:net
7571 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
7572 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
7576 ========================= ===============
7577 official protocol name protoent:name
7578 alias list protoent:aliases
7579 protocol number protoent:proto
7581 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
7582 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
7586 ========================= ===============
7587 official service name servent:name
7588 alias list servent:aliases
7589 port number servent:port
7590 protocol to use servent:proto
7592 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
7593 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
7596 ======================================== ===============
7597 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
7598 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
7599 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
7600 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
7602 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
7603 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
7604 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
7606 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
7607 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
7609 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
7610 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
7612 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
7613 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
7615 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
7617 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
7619 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
7620 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
7621 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
7623 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
7624 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
7625 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
7626 return the remaining characters as a string.
7628 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
7629 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
7630 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
7632 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
7634 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7636 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
7639 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
7642 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
7643 and returns the array
7645 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
7646 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
7647 the user to interpret the data both ways.
7649 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7651 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
7652 symbol's value from C code:
7654 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
7655 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
7656 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
7657 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
7659 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
7660 without assigning them a value.
7662 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
7663 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
7664 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
7666 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
7667 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
7668 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
7670 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
7671 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
7673 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
7674 doesn't actually care about that.
7676 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
7677 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
7678 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
7680 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
7681 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
7682 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
7683 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
7684 which we have just created and initialized.
7686 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
7687 should one occur. We call it like this:
7688 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
7690 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
7691 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
7692 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
7693 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
7694 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
7695 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
7698 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
7699 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
7700 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
7701 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
7702 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
7703 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
7704 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
7707 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
7708 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
7709 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
7710 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
7711 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
7714 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
7715 scm_internal_catch, except:
7717 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
7718 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
7719 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
7720 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
7723 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
7724 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
7725 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
7727 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
7728 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
7729 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
7730 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
7733 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
7734 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
7735 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
7737 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
7738 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
7739 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
7740 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
7741 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
7743 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
7744 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
7745 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
7747 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
7748 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
7749 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
7751 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
7752 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
7754 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
7755 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
7756 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
7759 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
7760 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
7761 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
7762 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
7763 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
7764 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
7765 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
7768 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
7769 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
7771 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
7772 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
7773 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
7774 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
7775 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
7778 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
7779 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
7781 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
7782 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
7785 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
7786 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
7788 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7791 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
7792 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
7793 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
7794 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
7795 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
7796 given the following arguments:
7798 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
7800 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
7802 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
7804 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7807 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
7808 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
7809 command-line arguments.
7811 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
7812 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
7813 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
7814 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
7815 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
7816 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
7819 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7822 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
7823 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
7825 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
7826 rearranged slightly. They are now:
7828 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7829 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7830 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
7831 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
7833 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7834 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7836 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7837 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
7838 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7839 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
7841 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7842 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7844 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
7845 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
7847 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
7849 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
7850 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
7851 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
7854 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
7855 returns a port instead of an FD object.
7857 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
7858 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
7863 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
7866 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
7868 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
7869 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
7870 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
7871 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
7873 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
7875 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
7877 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
7878 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
7879 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
7880 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
7881 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
7882 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
7883 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
7884 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
7885 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
7886 for more information.
7888 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
7889 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
7891 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
7892 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
7893 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
7894 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
7895 following two lines at the top of the file:
7897 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7900 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
7901 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
7902 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
7904 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
7906 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7908 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
7911 (display (car args))
7912 (if (pair? (cdr args))
7914 (loop (cdr args)))))
7917 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
7918 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
7919 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
7920 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
7921 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
7922 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
7926 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
7929 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
7932 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
7934 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
7935 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
7936 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
7937 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
7938 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
7941 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
7942 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
7943 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
7944 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
7945 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
7948 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
7951 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
7952 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
7953 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
7956 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
7957 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
7958 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
7960 to see a backtrace, and
7961 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
7962 to see them by default.
7966 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
7968 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
7970 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
7971 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
7974 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
7975 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
7976 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
7977 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
7980 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
7981 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
7982 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
7983 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
7984 functions which inspired them.
7986 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
7987 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
7991 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
7993 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
7995 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
7996 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
7999 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
8000 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
8001 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
8003 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
8004 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
8005 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
8006 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
8007 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
8009 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
8011 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
8012 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
8013 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
8016 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
8019 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
8021 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
8022 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
8023 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
8024 above should serve their purposes.
8026 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
8027 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
8028 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
8029 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
8031 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
8034 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
8035 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
8036 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
8037 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
8039 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
8040 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
8041 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
8042 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
8044 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
8045 for the `read' function.
8048 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
8049 to that of `integer?'.
8051 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
8052 use the R4RS names for these functions.
8054 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
8055 it simply returns the object's property list.
8057 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
8058 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
8059 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
8060 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
8062 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
8064 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
8067 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
8069 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
8070 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
8072 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
8074 void (*main_func) (),
8077 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
8078 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
8079 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
8080 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
8081 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
8083 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
8084 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
8085 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
8086 know which arguments have been processed.
8088 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
8089 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
8090 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
8091 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
8092 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
8094 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
8095 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
8096 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
8097 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
8098 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
8099 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
8100 people from making that mistake.
8102 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
8103 convenient ways to override these when desired.
8105 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
8107 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
8111 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
8114 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
8115 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
8116 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
8117 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
8120 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
8121 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
8122 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
8123 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
8126 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
8127 have been added to the Guile library.
8129 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
8130 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
8131 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
8134 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
8135 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
8136 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
8138 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
8139 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
8140 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
8141 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
8142 argument from the list.
8145 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
8148 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
8149 null-terminated string, and returns it.
8151 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
8152 to a Scheme port object.
8154 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
8155 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
8160 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
8162 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
8163 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
8164 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
8165 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
8166 code as a special datatype.
8168 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
8169 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
8170 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
8171 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
8172 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
8175 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
8176 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
8177 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
8178 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
8179 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
8181 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
8184 Copyright information:
8186 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8188 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8189 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8190 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8191 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8193 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8194 of this document, or of portions of it,
8195 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8196 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8201 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"