-Here are some guidelines for members of the Guile developers team.
-
-CVS conventions ======================================================
-
-- We use CVS to manage the Guile sources. The repository lives on
-egcs.cygnus.com, in /cvs/guile; you will need an
-account on that machine to access the repository. Also, for security
-reasons, egcs presently only supports CVS connections via the SSH
-protocol, so you must first install the SSH client. Then, you should
-set your CVS_RSH environment variable to ssh, and use the following as
-your CVS root:
-
- :ext:USER@egcs.cygnus.com:/cvs/guile
-
-Either set your CVSROOT environment variable to that, or give it as
-the value of the global -d option to CVS when you check out a working
-directory.
-
-For more information on SSH, see http://www.cs.hut.fi/ssh.
-
-The Guile sources live in several modules:
-
- - guile-core --- the interpreter, QuickThreads, and ice-9
- - guile-doc --- documentation in progress. When complete, this will
- be incorporated into guile-core.
- - guile-tcltk --- the Guile/Tk interface
- - guile-tk --- the new Guile/Tk interface, based on STk's modified Tk
- - guile-rgx-ctax --- the Guile/Rx interface, and the ctax implementation
- - guile-scsh --- the port of SCSH to guile, talk to Gary Houston
- - guile-comp --- the Hobbit compiler (talk to mdj)
- - guile-emacs --- Guile/Emacs interface (talk to mdj)
- - guile-oops --- The Guile Object-Oriented Programming System (talk to mdj)
- - guile-www --- A Guile module for making HTTP requests.
-
-- We check Makefile.in and configure files into CVS, as well as the
-files they are built from (Makefile.am, configure.in); we do not check
-in Makefiles or header files generated by configuration scripts. The
-general rule is that you should be able to check out a working
-directory of Guile from CVS, and then type "configure" and "make",
-without running any other tools.
-
-- Make sure your changes compile and work, at least on your own
-machine, before checking them into the main branch of the Guile
-repository. If you really need to check in untested changes, make a
-branch.
-
-- Include each log entry in both the ChangeLog and in the CVS logs.
-If you're using Emacs, the pcl-cvs interface to CVS has features to
-make this easier; it checks the ChangeLog, and generates good default
-CVS log entries from that.
+-*-text-*-
+Guile Hacking Guide
+Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2008, 2012 Free software Foundation, Inc.
+
+ Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
+ of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
+ copyright notice and permission notice are preserved,
+ and that the distributor grants the recipient permission
+ for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
+
+ Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
+ of this document, or of portions of it,
+ under the above conditions, provided also that they
+ carry prominent notices stating who last changed them,
+ and that any new or changed statements about the activities
+ of the Free Software Foundation are approved by the Foundation.
+
+
+What to Hack =========================================================
+
+You can hack whatever you want, thank GNU.
+
+However, to see what others have indicated as their interest (and avoid
+potential wasteful duplication of effort), see file TODO. Note that
+the version you find may be out of date; a CVS checkout is recommended:
+see below for details (see also the files ANON-CVS and SNAPSHOTS).
+
+It's also a good idea to join the guile-devel@gnu.org mailing list.
+See http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/mail/mail.html for more info.
+
+
+Hacking It Yourself ==================================================
+
+When Guile is obtained from Git, a few extra steps must be taken
+before the usual configure, make, make install. You will need to have
+up-to-date versions of the tools as listed below, correctly installed.
+
+Sometimes older or newer versions will work. (See below for versions
+to avoid.)
+
+Then you must run the autogen.sh script, as described below.
+
+The same procedure can be used to regenerate the files in released
+versions of Guile. In that case the headers of the original generated
+files (e.g., configure, Makefile.in, ltmain.sh) can be used to
+identify which tool versions may be required.
+
+Autoconf --- a system for automatically generating `configure'
+ scripts from templates which list the non-portable features a
+ program would like to use. Available in
+ "ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/autoconf"
+
+Automake --- a system for automatically generating Makefiles that
+ conform to the (rather Byzantine) GNU coding standards. The
+ nice thing is that it takes care of hairy targets like 'make
+ dist' and 'make distclean', and automatically generates
+ Makefile dependencies. Automake is available in
+ "ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/automake"
+
+libtool --- a system for managing the zillion hairy options needed
+ on various systems to produce shared libraries. Available in
+ "ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/libtool". Version 2.2 (or
+ later) is recommended (for correct AIX support, and correct
+ interaction with the Gnulib module for using libunistring).
+
+gettext --- a system for rigging a program so that it can output its
+ messages in the local tongue. Guile presently only exports
+ the gettext functionality to Scheme, it does not use it
+ itself.
+
+flex --- a scanner generator. It's probably not essential to have the
+ latest version.
+
+One false move and you will be lost in a little maze of automatically
+generated files, all different.
+
+Here is the authoritative list of tool/version/platform tuples that
+have been known to cause problems, and a short description of the problem.
+
+- automake 1.4 adds extraneous rules to the top-level Makefile if
+ you specify specific Makefiles to rebuild on the command line.
+
+- automake 1.4-p4 (debian "1:1.4-p4-1.1") all platforms
+ automake "include" facility does not recognize filenames w/ "-".
+
+- libtool 1.4 uses acconfig.h, which is deprecated by newest autoconf
+ (which constructs the equivalent through 3rd arg of AC_DEFINE forms).
+
+- autoreconf from autoconf prior to 2.59 will run gettextize, which
+ will mess up the Guile tree.
+
+- libtool 1.5.26 does not know that it should remove the -R options
+ that the Gnulib libunistring and havelib modules generate (because
+ gcc doesn't actually support -R).
+
+- (add here.)
+
+
+Sample GDB Initialization File=========================================
+
+Here is a sample .gdbinit posted by Bill Schottstaedt (modified to
+use `set' instead of `call' in some places):
+
+ define gp
+ set gdb_print($arg0)
+ print gdb_output
+ end
+ document gp
+ Executes (object->string arg)
+ end
+
+ define ge
+ call gdb_read($arg0)
+ call gdb_eval(gdb_result)
+ set gdb_print(gdb_result)
+ print gdb_output
+ end
+ document ge
+ Executes (print (eval (read arg))): ge "(+ 1 2)" => 3
+ end
+
+ define gh
+ call g_help(scm_str2symbol($arg0), 20)
+ set gdb_print($1)
+ print gdb_output
+ end
+ document gh
+ Prints help string for arg: gh "enved-target"
+ end
+
+Bill further writes:
+
+ so in gdb if you see something useless like:
+
+ #32 0x081ae8f4 in scm_primitive_load (filename=1112137128) at load.c:129
+
+ You can get the file name with gp:
+
+ (gdb) gp 1112137128
+ $1 = 0x40853fac "\"/home/bil/test/share/guile/1.5.0/ice-9/session.scm\""
+
+
+Contributing Your Changes ============================================
+
+- If you have put together a change that meets the coding standards
+described below, we encourage you to submit it to Guile. Post your
+patch to guile-devel@gnu.org.
+
+- We prefer patches generated using 'git format-patch'.
+
+- Provide a description in the commit message, like so:
+
+ 1-line description of change
+
+ More extensive discussion of your change. Document why you are
+ changing things.
+
+ * filename (function name): file specific change comments.
+
+- For proper credit, also make sure you update the AUTHORS file
+(for new files for which you've assigned copyright to the FSF), or
+the THANKS file (for everything else).
Coding standards =====================================================
- The Guile tree should compile without warnings under the following
GCC switches, which are the default in the current configure script:
+
-O2 -Wall -Wpointer-arith -Wmissing-prototypes
-The only exceptions are the warnings about variables being clobbered
-by longjmp/vfork in eval.c. (Tho' if you can figure out how to get
-rid of those, too, I'd be happy.)
+
+To make sure of this, you can use the --enable-error-on-warning option
+to configure. This option will make GCC fail if it hits a warning.
Note that the warnings generated vary from one version of GCC to the
next, and from one architecture to the next (apparently). To provide
a concrete common standard, Guile should compile without warnings from
-GCC 2.7.2.3 in a Red Hat 5.0 i386 Linux machine. Furthermore, each
+GCC 2.7.2.3 in a Red Hat 5.2 i386 Linux machine. Furthermore, each
developer should pursue any additional warnings noted by on their
compiler. This means that people using more stringent compilers will
have more work to do, and assures that everyone won't switch to the
most lenient compiler they can find. :)
-- When you make a user-visible change (i.e. one that should be
-documented, and appear in NEWS, put an asterisk in column zero of the
-start of the ChangeLog entry, like so:
+- If you add code which uses functions or other features that are not
+entirely portable, please make sure the rest of Guile will still
+function properly on systems where they are missing. This usually
+entails adding a test to configure.in, and then adding #ifdefs to your
+code to disable it if the system's features are missing.
+
+- The normal way of removing a function, macro or variable is to mark
+it as "deprecated", keep it for a while, and remove it in a later
+release. If a function or macro is marked as "deprecated" it
+indicates that people shouldn't use it in new programs, and should try
+to remove it in old. Make sure that an alternative exists unless it
+is our purpose to remove functionality. Don't deprecate definitions
+if it is unclear when they will be removed. (This is to ensure that a
+valid way of implementing some functionality always exists.)
+
+When deprecating a definition, always follow this procedure:
-Sat Aug 3 01:27:14 1996 Gary Houston <ghouston@actrix.gen.nz>
+1. Mark the definition using
-* * fports.c (scm_open_file): don't return #f, throw error.
+ #if (SCM_DEBUG_DEPRECATED == 0)
+ ...
+ #endif
-When you've written a NEWS entry and updated the documentation, go
-ahead and remove the asterisk. I will use the asterisks to find and
-document changes that haven't been dealt with before a release.
+ or, for Scheme code, wrap it using
-- Please write log entries for functions written in C under the
-functions' C names, and write log entries for functions written in
-Scheme under the functions' Scheme names. Please don't do this:
+ (begin-deprecated
+ ...)
- * procs.c, procs.h (procedure-documentation): Moved from eval.c.
+2. Make the deprecated code issue a warning when it is used, by using
+ scm_c_issue_deprecation_warning (in C) or issue-deprecation-warning
+ (in Scheme).
-Entries like this make it harder to search the ChangeLogs, because you
-can never tell which name the entry will refer to.
+3. Write a comment at the definition explaining how a programmer can
+ manage without the deprecated definition.
+
+4. Add an entry that the definition has been deprecated in NEWS and
+ explain what to do instead.
+
+5. In file TODO, there is a list of releases with reminders about what
+ to do at each release. Add a reminder about the removal of the
+ deprecated defintion at the appropriate release.
+
+- Write commit messages for functions written in C using the
+functions' C names, and write entries for functions written in Scheme
+using the functions' Scheme names. For example,
+
+ * foo.c: Moved scm_procedure_documentation from eval.c.
+
+is preferred over
+
+ * foo.c: Moved procedure-documentation from eval.c.
Changes like adding this line are special:
- SCM_PROC (s_serial_map, "serial-map", 2, 0, 1, scm_map);
+ SCM_PROC (s_map_in_order, "map-in-order", 2, 0, 1, scm_map);
Since the change here is about the name itself --- we're adding a new
alias for scm_map that guarantees the order in which we process list
elements, but we're not changing scm_map at all --- it's appropriate
-to use the Scheme name in the log entry.
-
-- There's no need to keep a change log for documentation files. This
-is because documentation is not susceptible to bugs that are hard to
-fix. Documentation does not consist of parts that must interact in a
-precisely engineered fashion; to correct an error, you need not know
-the history of the erroneous passage. (This is copied from the GNU
-coding standards.)
+to use the Scheme name in the commit message.
- Make sure you have papers from people before integrating their
changes or contributions. This is very frustrating, but very
and I'll take care of the administrivia. Put the contributions aside
until we have the necessary papers.
+Once you accept a contribution, be sure to keep the files AUTHORS and
+THANKS uptodate.
+
- When you make substantial changes to a file, add the current year to
the list of years in the copyright notice at the top of the file.
+- When you get bug reports or patches from people, be sure to list
+them in THANKS.
+
+- Do not introduce trailing whitespace (and feel free to clean it up
+opportunistically, that is, if doing so is part of some other change).
+The goal is to reduce (and over time, eliminate) spurious diffs.
+
+For Emacs users:
+ (add-hook 'before-save-hook 'delete-trailing-whitespace)
+
+Naming conventions =================================================
+
+We use certain naming conventions to structure the considerable number
+of global identifiers. All identifiers should be either all lower
+case or all upper case. Syllables are separated by underscores `_'.
+All non-static identifiers should start with scm_ or SCM_. Then might
+follow zero or more syllables giving the category of the identifier.
+The currently used category identifiers are
+
+ t - type name
+
+ c,C - something with a interface suited for C use. This is used
+ to name functions that behave like Scheme primitives but
+ have a more C friendly calling convention.
+
+ i,I - internal to libguile. It is global, but not considered part
+ of the libguile API.
+
+ f - a SCM variable pointing to a Scheme function object.
+
+ F - a bit mask for a flag.
+
+ m - a macro transformer procedure
+
+ n,N - a count of something
+
+ s - a constant C string
+
+ k - a SCM variable pointing to a keyword.
+
+ sym - a SCM variable pointing to a symbol.
+
+ var - a SCM variable pointing to a variable object.
+
+The follwing syllables also have a technical meaning:
+
+ str - this denotes a zero terminated C string
+
+ mem - a C string with an explicit count
+
+
+See also the file `devel/names.text'.
+
Helpful hints ========================================================
You can define the GUILE_DEBUG flag by passing --enable-guile-debug to
the configure script.
-- You'll see uses of the macro SCM_P scattered throughout the code;
-those are vestiges of a time when Guile was meant to compile on
-pre-ANSI compilers. Guile now requires ANSI C, so when you write new
-functions, feel free to use ANSI declarations, and please provide
-prototypes for everything. You don't need to use SCM_P in new code.
+Jim Blandy, and others
-Jim Blandy
HCoop / bpt / guile.git / blobdiff