-Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes. 2 Aug 1996 -*- text -*-
-Copyright (C) 1996 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes. -*- text -*-
+Copyright (C) 1996, 1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
See the end for copying conditions.
Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@prep.ai.mit.edu.
\f
-Guile 1.0b3
+Changes in Guile 1.1 (Sun 5 Jan 1997):
+
+* Changes to the distribution.
+
+The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
+pieces:
+guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
+guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
+ Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
+ is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
+guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
+ expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
+ programming language. These are packaged together because the
+ Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
+
+We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
+date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
+will distribute it.
+
+* Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
+
+** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
+Shivers' Scheme Shell.
+
+In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
+exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
+stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
+the (command-line) function.
+ -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
+ -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
+ -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
+
+The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
+ -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
+ -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
+ command line arguments
+ -ds do -s script at this point
+ --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
+ -h, --help display this help and exit
+ -v, --version display version information and exit
+ \ read arguments from following script lines
+
+So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
+which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
-User-visible changes since Thursday, September 5:
+#!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
+!#
+(define (main args)
+ (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
+ (cdr args))
+ (newline))
+
+(main (command-line))
+Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
-* Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
+ ekko a speckled gecko
-This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
-upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
-implementations.
+Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
+token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
+following list of command-line arguments:
-Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
-type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
-caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
-way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
+ ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
+
+Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
+the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
+with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
+defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
+remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
+
+* Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
+
+** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
+system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
+all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
+supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
+libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
+
+Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
+it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
+independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
+
+** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
+
+To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
+-lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
+autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
+following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
+your link command:
+
+### Find quickthreads and libguile.
+AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
+AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
+
+* Changes to Scheme functions
+
+** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
+returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
+
+ Component Accessor Setter
+ ========================= ============ ============
+ seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
+ minutes tm:min set-tm:min
+ hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
+ day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
+ month tm:mon set-tm:mon
+ year tm:year set-tm:year
+ day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
+ day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
+ daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
+ GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
+ name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
+
+** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname'.
+
+ Component Accessor
+ ============================================== ================
+ name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
+ network name of this machine utsname:nodename
+ release level of the operating system utsname:release
+ version level of the operating system utsname:version
+ machine hardware platform utsname:machine
+
+** There is now a complete set of accessors for the vectors returned
+by the `getserv'
+
+** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
+string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
+in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
+unspecified value.
+
+** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
+given to Guile, as a list of strings.
+
+When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
+script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
+`-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
+behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
+command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
+
+** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
+in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
+mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
+but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
+
+** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
+argument.
+
+** gethost, getproto, and getnet, and getserv now return more helpful
+error codes.
+* Changes to the gh_ interface
-* You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
+** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
+evaluation
+
+** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
+array
+
+** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
+and returns the array
+
+** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
+null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
+the user to interpret the data both ways.
+
+* Changes to the scm_ interface
+
+** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
+process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
+stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
+the Scheme shell).
+
+To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
+linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
+of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will adding
+any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
+argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
+generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
+command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
+interpreter" above.
+
+** [[new: scm_usage_name, scm_shell_usage, scm_compile_shell_switches]]
+
+** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
+expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL.
+
+* Changes to documentation
+
+** the $(srcdir)/newdoc hierarchy now contains a new approach to the
+manuals. The approach, recommended by Jim Blandy, is to have: (*) a
+tutorial with the pedagogical style of guile-user, and a non-dry
+reference manual in the style of the most excellent GNU libc reference
+manual: the reference manual should be complete, but at the same time
+it should have an introductory screen for each major topic, which can
+be referenced if the user goes "up" a level in the info documentation.
+
+\f
+Guile 1.0b3
+
+User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
+(Sun 5 Jan 1997):
+
+* Changes to the 'guile' program:
+
+** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
+searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
+Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
+directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
+
+** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
-* You can now run Guile without installing it.
+** You can now run Guile without installing it.
Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
-* Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
+** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
+results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
+expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
+file.
+
+** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
+however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
+request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
+ (backtrace)
+to see a backtrace, and
+ (debug-enable 'backtrace)
+to see them by default.
+
+
+
+* Changes to Guile Scheme:
+
+** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
+
+This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
+upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
+implementations.
+
+Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
+type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
+caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
+way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
+
+
+** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
+counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
+elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
+of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
+functions which inspired them.
+
+I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
+seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
+rather than after.
+
+
+** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
+
+** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
+
+*** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
+for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
+a directory.
+
+*** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
+try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
+is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
+
+*** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
+value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
+with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
+match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
+returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
+
+%search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
+
+*** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
+uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
+it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
+error.
+
+The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
+`read' function.
+
+*** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
+
+*** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
+basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
+path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
+above should serve their purposes.
+
+*** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
+`primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
+loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
+is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
+
+This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
+
+
+** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
+We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
+because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
+`read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
+
+** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
+evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
+simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
+copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
+
+Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
+for the `read' function.
+
+
+** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
+to that of `integer?'.
+
+** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
+use the R4RS names for these functions.
+
+** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
+it simply returns the object's property list.
+
+** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
+returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
+the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
+useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
+
+** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
+
+** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
+
+
+* Changes to Guile's C interface:
+
+** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
+scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
+
+void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
+ char **ARGV,
+ void (*main_func) (),
+ void *closure);
+
+scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
+MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
+packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
+returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
+other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
+
+scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
+given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
+scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
+know which arguments have been processed.
+
+scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
+error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
+coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
+handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
+their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
+
+Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
+collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
+scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
+SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
+whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
+scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
+people from making that mistake.
+
+The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
+convenient ways to override these when desired.
+
+The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
+
+The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
+general.
+
+
+** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
header files.
In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
-* Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
-counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
-elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
-of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
-functions which inspired them.
-I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
-seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
-rather than after.
+** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
+have been added to the Guile library.
+scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
+OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
+until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
+return OBJ.
-* The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
+Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
+scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
+next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
+Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
+maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
+this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
+adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
+argument from the list.
-* A variable and two new functions have been added to libguile:
-** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
-for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
-a directory.
+** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
+evaluated.
-** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
-value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME. If
-it finds a match, then it returns its full filename. Otherwise, it
-returns #f. %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to
-directories.
+** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
+null-terminated string, and returns it.
-** (%try-load-path FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
-searches the directories listed in %load-path for a file named
-FILENAME, and loads it if it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for
-any reason, it throws an error.
+** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
+to a Scheme port object.
-The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
-%try-load function.
+** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
+the value teruturned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
\f
Older changes:
\f
Copyright information:
-Copyright (C) 1996 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Copyright (C) 1996,1997 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
under the above conditions, provided also that they
carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
+\f
+Local variables:
+mode: outline
+paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
+end:
+
HCoop / bpt / guile.git / blobdiff