Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
-Copyright (C) 1996-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Copyright (C) 1996-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
See the end for copying conditions.
Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
+Changes in 2.0.6 (since 2.0.5):
+
+* Notable changes
+
+** New optimization pass: common subexpression elimination (CSE)
+
+Guile's optimizer will now run a CSE pass after partial evaluation.
+This pass propagates static information about branches taken, bound
+lexicals, and effects from an expression's dominators. It can replace
+common subexpressions with their boolean values (potentially enabling
+dead code elimination), equivalent bound lexicals, or it can elide them
+entirely, depending on the context in which they are executed. This
+pass is especially useful in removing duplicate type checks, such as
+those produced by SRFi-9 record accessors.
+
+** Improvements to the partial evaluator
+
+Peval can now hoist tests that are common to both branches of a
+conditional into the test. This can help with long chains of
+conditionals, such as those generated by the `match' macro. Peval can
+now do simple beta-reductions of procedures with rest arguments. It
+also avoids residualizing degenerate lexical aliases, even when full
+inlining is not possible. Finally, peval now uses the effects analysis
+introduced for the CSE pass. More precise effects analysis allows peval
+to move more code.
+
+** Run finalizers asynchronously in asyncs
+
+Finalizers are now run asynchronously, via an async. See Asyncs in the
+manual. This allows Guile and user code to safely allocate memory while
+holding a mutex.
+
+** Update SRFI-14 character sets to Unicode 6.1
+
+Note that this update causes the Latin-1 characters `§' and `¶' to be
+reclassified as punctuation. They were previously considered to be part
+of `char-set:symbol'.
+
+** Better source information for datums
+
+When the `positions' reader option is on, as it is by default, Guile's
+reader will record source information for more kinds of datums.
+
+** Improved error and warning messages
+
+`syntax-violation' errors now prefer 'subform' for source info, with
+'form' as fallback. Syntactic errors in `cond' and `case' now produce
+better errors. `case' can now warn on duplicate datums, or datums that
+cannot be usefully compared with `eqv?'. `-Warity-mismatch' now handles
+applicable structs. `-Wformat' is more robust in the presence of
+`gettext'. Finally, various exceptions thrown by the Web modules now
+define appropriate exception printers.
+
+** A few important bug fixes in the HTTP modules.
+
+Guile's web server framework now checks if an application returns a body
+wheree it is not permitted, for example in response to a HEAD request,
+and warn or truncate the response as appropriate. Bad requests now
+cause a 400 Bad Request response to be printed before closing the port.
+Finally, some date-printing and URL-parsing bugs were fixed.
+
+** Pretty-print improvements
+
+When Guile needs to pretty-print Tree-IL, it will try to reconstruct
+`cond', `or`, and other derived syntax forms from the primitive tree-IL
+forms. It also uses the original names instead of the fresh unique
+names, when it is unambiguous to do so. This can be seen in the output
+of REPL commands like `,optimize'.
+
+Also, the `pretty-print' procedure has a new keyword argument,
+`#:max-expr-width'.
+
+** Fix memory leak involving applicable SMOBs
+
+At some point in the 1.9.x series, Guile began leaking any applicable
+SMOB that was actually applied. (There was a weak-key map from SMOB to
+trampoline functions, where the value had a strong reference on the
+key.) This has been fixed. There was much rejoicing!
+
+** Support for HTTP/1.1 chunked transfer coding
+
+See "Transfer Codings" in the manual, for more.
+
+** Micro-optimizations
+
+A pile of micro-optimizations: the `string-trim' function when called
+with `char-set:whitespace'; the `(web http)' parsers; SMOB application;
+conversion of raw UTF-8 and UTF-32 data to and from SCM strings; vlists
+and vhashes; `read' when processing string literals.
+
+** Incompatible change to `scandir'
+
+As was the original intention, `scandir' now runs the `select?'
+procedure on all items, including subdirectories and the `.' and `..'
+entries. It receives the basename of the file in question instead of
+the full name. We apologize for this incompatible change to this
+function introduced in the 2.0.4 release.
+
+* Manual updates
+
+The manual has been made much more consistent in its naming conventions
+with regards to formal parameters of functions. Thanks to Bake Timmons.
+
+* New interfaces
+
+** New C function: `scm_to_pointer'
+** New C inline functions: `scm_new_smob', `scm_new_double_smob'
+** (ice-9 format): Add ~h specifier for localized number output.
+** (web response): New procedure: `response-must-not-include-body?'
+** New predicate: 'supports-source-properties?'
+** New C helpers: `scm_c_values', `scm_c_nvalues'
+** Newly public inline C function: `scm_unget_byte'
+** (language tree-il): New functions: `tree-il=?', `tree-il-hash'
+** New fluid: `%default-port-conversion-strategy'
+** New syntax: `=>' within `case'
+** (web http): `make-chunked-input-port', `make-chunked-output-port'
+** (web http): `declare-opaque-header!'
+
+Search the manual for these identifiers, for more information.
+
+* New deprecations
+
+** `close-io-port' deprecated
+
+Use `close-port'.
+
+** `scm_sym2var' deprecated
+
+In most cases, replace with `scm_lookup' or `scm_module_variable'. Use
+`scm_define' or `scm_module_ensure_local_variable' if the second
+argument is nonzero. See "Accessing Modules from C" in the manual, for
+full details.
+
+** Lookup closures deprecated
+
+These were never documented. See "Module System Reflection" in the
+manual for replacements.
+
+* Build fixes
+
+** Fix compilation against uninstalled Guile on non-GNU platforms.
+** Fix `SCM_I_ERROR' definition for MinGW without networking.
+** Fix compilation with the Sun C compiler.
+** Fix check for `clock_gettime' on OpenBSD and some other systems.
+** Fix build with --enable-debug-malloc.
+** Honor $(program_transform_name) for the `guile-tools' symlink.
+** Fix cross-compilation of GOOPS-using code.
+
+* Bug fixes
+
+** Fix use of unitialized stat buffer in search-path of absolute paths.
+** Avoid calling `freelocale' with a NULL argument.
+** Work around erroneous tr_TR locale in Darwin 8 in tests.
+** Fix `getaddrinfo' test for Darwin 8.
+** Use Gnulib's `regex' module for better regex portability.
+** `source-properties' and friends work on any object
+** Rewrite open-process in C, for robustness related to threads and fork
+** Fix <TAG>vector-length when applied to other uniform vector types
+** Fix escape-only prompt optimization (was disabled previously)
+** Fix a segfault when /dev/urandom is not accessible
+** Fix flush on soft ports, so that it actually runs.
+** Better compatibility of SRFI-9 records with core records
+** Fix and clarify documentation of `sorted?'.
+** Fix IEEE-754 endianness conversion in bytevectors.
+** Correct thunk check in the `wind' instruction.
+** Add @acronym support to texinfo modules
+** Fix docbook->texi for <ulink> without URL
+** Fix `setvbuf' to leave the line/column number unchanged.
+** Add missing public declaration for `scm_take_from_input_buffers'.
+** Fix relative file name canonicalization with empty %LOAD-PATH entries.
+** Import newer (ice-9 match) from Chibi-Scheme.
+** Fix unbound variables and unbound values in ECMAScript runtime.
+** Make SRFI-6 string ports Unicode-capable.
+
+\f
+Changes in 2.0.5 (since 2.0.4):
+
+This release fixes the binary interface information (SONAME) of
+libguile, which was incorrect in 2.0.4. It does not contain other
+changes.
+
+\f
+Changes in 2.0.4 (since 2.0.3):
+
+* Notable changes
+
+** Better debuggability for interpreted procedures.
+
+Guile 2.0 came with a great debugging experience for compiled
+procedures, but the story for interpreted procedures was terrible. Now,
+at least, interpreted procedures have names, and the `arity' procedure
+property is always correct (or, as correct as it can be, in the presence
+of `case-lambda').
+
+** Support for cross-compilation.
+
+One can now use a native Guile to cross-compile `.go' files for a
+different architecture. See the documentation for `--target' in the
+"Compilation" section of the manual, for information on how to use the
+cross-compiler. See the "Cross building Guile" section of the README,
+for more on how to cross-compile Guile itself.
+
+** The return of `local-eval'.
+
+Back by popular demand, `the-environment' and `local-eval' allow the
+user to capture a lexical environment, and then evaluate arbitrary
+expressions in that context. There is also a new `local-compile'
+command. See "Local Evaluation" in the manual, for more. Special
+thanks to Mark Weaver for an initial implementation of this feature.
+
+** Fluids can now have default values.
+
+Fluids are used for dynamic and thread-local binding. They have always
+inherited their values from the context or thread that created them.
+However, there was a case in which a new thread would enter Guile, and
+the default values of all the fluids would be `#f' for that thread.
+
+This has now been fixed so that `make-fluid' has an optional default
+value for fluids in unrelated dynamic roots, which defaults to `#f'.
+
+** Garbage collector tuning.
+
+The garbage collector has now been tuned to run more often under some
+circumstances.
+
+*** Unmanaged allocation
+
+The new `scm_gc_register_allocation' function will notify the collector
+of unmanaged allocation. This will cause the collector to run sooner.
+Guile's `scm_malloc', `scm_calloc', and `scm_realloc' unmanaged
+allocators eventually call this function. This leads to better
+performance under steady-state unmanaged allocation.
+
+*** Transient allocation
+
+When the collector runs, it will try to record the total memory
+footprint of a process, if the platform supports this information. If
+the memory footprint is growing, the collector will run more frequently.
+This reduces the increase of the resident size of a process in response
+to a transient increase in allocation.
+
+*** Management of threads, bignums
+
+Creating a thread will allocate a fair amount of memory. Guile now does
+some GC work (using `GC_collect_a_little') when allocating a thread.
+This leads to a better memory footprint when creating many short-lived
+threads.
+
+Similarly, bignums can occupy a lot of memory. Guile now offers hooks
+to enable custom GMP allocators that end up calling
+`scm_gc_register_allocation'. These allocators are enabled by default
+when running Guile from the command-line. To enable them in libraries,
+set the `scm_install_gmp_memory_functions' variable to a nonzero value
+before loading Guile.
+
+** SRFI-39 parameters are available by default.
+
+Guile now includes support for parameters, as defined by SRFI-39, in the
+default environment. See "Parameters" in the manual, for more
+information. `current-input-port', `current-output-port', and
+`current-error-port' are now parameters.
+
+** Add `current-warning-port'.
+
+Guile now outputs warnings on a separate port, `current-warning-port',
+initialized to the value that `current-error-port' has on startup.
+
+** Syntax parameters.
+
+Following Racket's lead, Guile now supports syntax parameters. See
+"Syntax parameters" in the manual, for more.
+
+Also see Barzilay, Culpepper, and Flatt's 2011 SFP workshop paper,
+"Keeping it Clean with syntax-parameterize".
+
+** Parse command-line arguments from the locale encoding.
+
+Guile now attempts to parse command-line arguments using the user's
+locale. However for backwards compatibility with other 2.0.x releases,
+it does so without actually calling `setlocale'. Please report any bugs
+in this facility to bug-guile@gnu.org.
+
+** One-armed conditionals: `when' and `unless'
+
+Guile finally has `when' and `unless' in the default environment. Use
+them whenever you would use an `if' with only one branch. See
+"Conditionals" in the manual, for more.
+
+** `current-filename', `add-to-load-path'
+
+There is a new form, `(current-filename)', which expands out to the
+source file in which it occurs. Combined with the new
+`add-to-load-path', this allows simple scripts to easily add nearby
+directories to the load path. See "Load Paths" in the manual, for more.
+
+** `random-state-from-platform'
+
+This procedure initializes a random seed using good random sources
+available on your platform, such as /dev/urandom. See "Random Number
+Generation" in the manual, for more.
+
+** Warn about unsupported `simple-format' options.
+
+The `-Wformat' compilation option now reports unsupported format options
+passed to `simple-format'.
+
+** Manual updates
+
+Besides the sections already mentioned, the following manual sections
+are new in this release: "Modules and the File System", "Module System
+Reflection", "Syntax Transformer Helpers", and "Local Inclusion".
+
+* New interfaces
+
+** (ice-9 session): `apropos-hook'
+** New print option: `escape-newlines', defaults to #t.
+** (ice-9 ftw): `file-system-fold', `file-system-tree', `scandir'
+** `scm_c_value_ref': access to multiple returned values from C
+** scm_call (a varargs version), scm_call_7, scm_call_8, scm_call_9
+** Some new syntax helpers in (system syntax)
+
+Search the manual for these identifiers and modules, for more.
+
+* Build fixes
+
+** FreeBSD build fixes.
+** OpenBSD compilation fixes.
+** Solaris 2.10 test suite fixes.
+** IA64 compilation fix.
+** MinGW build fixes.
+** Work around instruction reordering on SPARC and HPPA in the VM.
+** Gnulib updates: added `dirfd', `setenv' modules.
+
+* Bug fixes
+
+** Add a deprecated alias for $expt.
+** Add an exception printer for `getaddrinfo-error'.
+** Add deprecated shim for `scm_display_error' with stack as first argument.
+** Add warnings for unsupported `simple-format' options.
+** Allow overlapping regions to be passed to `bytevector-copy!'.
+** Better function prologue disassembly
+** Compiler: fix miscompilation of (values foo ...) in some contexts.
+** Compiler: fix serialization of #nil-terminated lists.
+** Compiler: allow values bound in non-tail let expressions to be collected.
+** Deprecate SCM_ASRTGO.
+** Document invalidity of (begin) as expression; add back-compat shim.
+** Don't leak file descriptors when mmaping objcode.
+** Empty substrings no longer reference the original stringbuf.
+** FFI: Fix `set-pointer-finalizer!' to leave the type cell unchanged.
+** FFI: Hold a weak reference to the CIF made by `procedure->pointer'.
+** FFI: Hold a weak reference to the procedure passed to `procedure->pointer'.
+** FFI: Properly unpack small integer return values in closure call.
+** Fix R6RS `fold-left' so the accumulator is the first argument.
+** Fix bit-set*! bug from 2005.
+** Fix bug in `make-repl' when `lang' is actually a <language>.
+** Fix bugs related to mutation, the null string, and shared substrings.
+** Fix <dynwind> serialization.
+** Fix erroneous check in `set-procedure-properties!'.
+** Fix generalized-vector-{ref,set!} for slices.
+** Fix error messages involving definition forms.
+** Fix primitive-eval to return #<unspecified> for definitions.
+** HTTP: Extend handling of "Cache-Control" header.
+** HTTP: Fix qstring writing of cache-extension values
+** HTTP: Fix validators for various list-style headers.
+** HTTP: Permit non-date values for Expires header.
+** HTTP: `write-request-line' writes absolute paths, not absolute URIs.
+** Hack the port-column of current-output-port after printing a prompt.
+** Make sure `regexp-quote' tests use Unicode-capable string ports.
+** Peval: Fix bugs in the new optimizer.
+** Statistically unique marks and labels, for robust hygiene across sessions.
+** Web: Allow URIs with empty authorities, like "file:///etc/hosts".
+** `,language' at REPL sets the current-language fluid.
+** `primitive-load' returns the value(s) of the last expression.
+** `scm_from_stringn' always returns unique strings.
+** `scm_i_substring_copy' tries to narrow the substring.
+** i18n: Fix gc_malloc/free mismatch on non-GNU systems.
+
+\f
Changes in 2.0.3 (since 2.0.2):
* Speed improvements
Instead of accessing a procedure's arity as a property, use the new
`procedure-minimum-arity' function, which gives the most permissive
-arity that the the function has, in the same format as the old arity
+arity that the function has, in the same format as the old arity
accessor.
** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
-both with the old 1.8 and and with the current 1.9 branch.
+both with the old 1.8 and with the current 1.9 branch.
Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
-the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
+the Guile interpreter or other unwanted results. An example of
incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
(let ()
HCoop / bpt / guile.git / blobdiff