Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
-Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Copyright (C) 1996-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
See the end for copying conditions.
Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
-Note: During the 1.9 series, we will keep an incremental NEWS for the
-latest prerelease, and a full NEWS corresponding to 1.8 -> 2.0.
+Changes in 2.0.3 (since 2.0.2):
-Changes in 1.9.15 (since the 1.9.14 prerelease):
+* Speed improvements
-** New reader option: `hungry-eol-escapes'
+** Guile has a new optimizer, `peval'.
-Guile's string syntax is more compatible with R6RS when the
-`hungry-eol-escapes' option is enabled. See "String Syntax" in the
-manual, for more information.
+`Peval' is a partial evaluator that performs constant folding, dead code
+elimination, copy propagation, and inlining. By default it runs on
+every piece of code that Guile compiles, to fold computations that can
+happen at compile-time, so they don't have to happen at runtime.
-** `expt' and `integer-expt' changes when the base is 0
+If we did our job right, the only impact you would see would be your
+programs getting faster. But if you notice slowdowns or bloated code,
+please send a mail to bug-guile@gnu.org with details.
-While `(expt 0 0)' is still 1, `(expt 0 N)' for N > 0 is now 0, and
-`(expt 0 N)' for N < 0 is now a NaN value, and likewise for
-integer-expt. This is more correct, and conforming to R6RS, but seems
-to be incompatible with R5RS, which would always return 0 for all values
-of N.
+Thanks to William R. Cook, Oscar Waddell, and Kent Dybvig for inspiring
+peval and its implementation.
-** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes
-
-Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information.
+You can see what peval does on a given piece of code by running the new
+`,optimize' REPL meta-command, and comparing it to the output of
+`,expand'. See "Compile Commands" in the manual, for more.
+
+** Fewer calls to `stat'.
+
+Guile now stats only the .go file and the .scm file when loading a fresh
+compiled file.
+
+* Notable changes
+
+** New module: `(web client)', a simple synchronous web client.
+
+See "Web Client" in the manual, for more.
+
+** Users can now install compiled `.go' files.
+
+See "Installing Site Packages" in the manual.
+
+** Remove Front-Cover and Back-Cover text from the manual.
+
+The manual is still under the GNU Free Documentation License, but no
+longer has any invariant sections.
+
+** More helpful `guild help'.
+
+`guild' is Guile's multi-tool, for use in shell scripting. Now it has a
+nicer interface for querying the set of existing commands, and getting
+help on those commands. Try it out and see!
+
+** New macro: `define-syntax-rule'
+
+`define-syntax-rule' is a shorthand to make a `syntax-rules' macro with
+one clause. See "Syntax Rules" in the manual, for more.
+
+** The `,time' REPL meta-command now has more precision.
+
+The output of this command now has microsecond precision, instead of
+10-millisecond precision.
+
+** `(ice-9 match)' can now match records.
+
+See "Pattern Matching" in the manual, for more on matching records.
+
+** New module: `(language tree-il debug)'.
+
+This module provides a tree-il verifier. This is useful for people that
+generate tree-il, usually as part of a language compiler.
+
+** New functions: `scm_is_exact', `scm_is_inexact'.
+
+These provide a nice C interface for Scheme's `exact?' and `inexact?',
+respectively.
+
+* Bugs fixed
+
+See the git log (or the ChangeLog) for more details on these bugs.
+
+** Fix order of importing modules and resolving duplicates handlers.
+** Fix a number of bugs involving extended (merged) generics.
+** Fix invocation of merge-generics duplicate handler.
+** Fix write beyond array end in arrays.c.
+** Fix read beyond end of hashtable size array in hashtab.c.
+** (web http): Locale-independent parsing and serialization of dates.
+** Ensure presence of Host header in HTTP/1.1 requests.
+** Fix take-right and drop-right for improper lists.
+** Fix leak in get_current_locale().
+** Fix recursive define-inlinable expansions.
+** Check that srfi-1 procedure arguments are procedures.
+** Fix r6rs `map' for multiple returns.
+** Fix scm_tmpfile leak on POSIX platforms.
+** Fix a couple of leaks (objcode->bytecode, make-boot-program).
+** Fix guile-lib back-compatibility for module-stexi-documentation.
+** Fix --listen option to allow other ports.
+** Fix scm_to_latin1_stringn for substrings.
+** Fix compilation of untyped arrays of rank not 1.
+** Fix unparse-tree-il of <dynset>.
+** Fix reading of #||||#.
+** Fix segfault in GOOPS when class fields are redefined.
+** Prefer poll(2) over select(2) to allow file descriptors above FD_SETSIZE.
+
+\f
+Changes in 2.0.2 (since 2.0.1):
+
+* Notable changes
+
+** `guile-tools' renamed to `guild'
+
+The new name is shorter. Its intended future use is for a CPAN-like
+system for Guile wizards and journeyfolk to band together to share code;
+hence the name. `guile-tools' is provided as a backward-compatible
+symbolic link. See "Using Guile Tools" in the manual, for more.
+
+** New control operators: `shift' and `reset'
+
+See "Shift and Reset" in the manual, for more information.
+
+** `while' as an expression
+
+Previously the return value of `while' was unspecified. Now its
+values are specified both in the case of normal termination, and via
+termination by invoking `break', possibly with arguments. See "while
+do" in the manual for more.
+
+** Disallow access to handles of weak hash tables
+
+`hash-get-handle' and `hash-create-handle!' are no longer permitted to
+be called on weak hash tables, because the fields in a weak handle could
+be nulled out by the garbage collector at any time, but yet they are
+otherwise indistinguishable from pairs. Use `hash-ref' and `hash-set!'
+instead.
+
+** More precision for `get-internal-run-time', `get-internal-real-time'
+
+On 64-bit systems which support POSIX clocks, Guile's internal timing
+procedures offer nanosecond resolution instead of the 10-millisecond
+resolution previously available. 32-bit systems now use 1-millisecond
+timers.
+
+** Guile now measures time spent in GC
+
+`gc-stats' now returns a meaningful value for `gc-time-taken'.
+
+** Add `gcprof'
+
+The statprof profiler now exports a `gcprof' procedure, driven by the
+`after-gc-hook', to see which parts of your program are causing GC. Let
+us know if you find it useful.
+
+** `map', `for-each' and some others now implemented in Scheme
+
+We would not mention this in NEWS, as it is not a user-visible change,
+if it were not for one thing: `map' and `for-each' are no longer
+primitive generics. Instead they are normal bindings, which can be
+wrapped by normal generics. This fixes some modularity issues between
+core `map', SRFI-1 `map', and GOOPS.
+
+Also it's pretty cool that we can do this without a performance impact.
+
+** Add `scm_peek_byte_or_eof'.
+
+This helper is like `scm_peek_char_or_eof', but for bytes instead of
+full characters.
+
+** Implement #:stop-at-first-non-option option for getopt-long
+
+See "getopt-long Reference" in the manual, for more information.
+
+** Improve R6RS conformance for conditions in the I/O libraries
+
+The `(rnrs io simple)' module now raises the correct R6RS conditions in
+error cases. `(rnrs io ports)' is also more correct now, though it is
+still a work in progress.
+
+** All deprecated routines emit warnings
+
+A few deprecated routines were lacking deprecation warnings. This has
+been fixed now.
+
+* Speed improvements
+
+** Constants in compiled code now share state better
+
+Constants with shared state, like `("foo")' and `"foo"', now share state
+as much as possible, in the entire compilation unit. This cuts compiled
+`.go' file sizes in half, generally, and speeds startup.
+
+** VLists: optimize `vlist-fold-right', and add `vhash-fold-right'
+
+These procedures are now twice as fast as they were.
+
+** UTF-8 ports to bypass `iconv' entirely
+
+This reduces memory usage in a very common case.
+
+** Compiler speedups
+
+The compiler is now about 40% faster. (Note that this is only the case
+once the compiler is itself compiled, so the build still takes as long
+as it did before.)
+
+** VM speed tuning
+
+Some assertions that were mostly useful for sanity-checks on the
+bytecode compiler are now off for both "regular" and "debug" engines.
+This together with a fix to cache a TLS access and some other tweaks
+improve the VM's performance by about 20%.
+
+** SRFI-1 list-set optimizations
+
+lset-adjoin and lset-union now have fast paths for eq? sets.
+
+** `memq', `memv' optimizations
+
+These procedures are now at least twice as fast than in 2.0.1.
+
+* Deprecations
+
+** Deprecate scm_whash API
+
+`scm_whash_get_handle', `SCM_WHASHFOUNDP', `SCM_WHASHREF',
+`SCM_WHASHSET', `scm_whash_create_handle', `scm_whash_lookup', and
+`scm_whash_insert' are now deprecated. Use the normal hash table API
+instead.
+
+** Deprecate scm_struct_table
+
+`SCM_STRUCT_TABLE_NAME', `SCM_SET_STRUCT_TABLE_NAME',
+`SCM_STRUCT_TABLE_CLASS', `SCM_SET_STRUCT_TABLE_CLASS',
+`scm_struct_table', and `scm_struct_create_handle' are now deprecated.
+These routines formed part of the internals of the map between structs
+and classes.
+
+** Deprecate scm_internal_dynamic_wind
+
+The `scm_t_inner' type and `scm_internal_dynamic_wind' are deprecated,
+as the `scm_dynwind' API is better, and this API encourages users to
+stuff SCM values into pointers.
+
+** Deprecate scm_immutable_cell, scm_immutable_double_cell
+
+These routines are deprecated, as the GC_STUBBORN API doesn't do
+anything any more.
+
+* Manual updates
+
+Andreas Rottman kindly transcribed the missing parts of the `(rnrs io
+ports)' documentation from the R6RS documentation. Thanks Andreas!
+
+* Bugs fixed
+
+** Fix double-loading of script in -ds case
+** -x error message fix
+** iconveh-related cross-compilation fixes
+** Fix small integer return value packing on big endian machines.
+** Fix hash-set! in weak-value table from non-immediate to immediate
+** Fix call-with-input-file & relatives for multiple values
+** Fix `hash' for inf and nan
+** Fix libguile internal type errors caught by typing-strictness==2
+** Fix compile error in MinGW fstat socket detection
+** Fix generation of auto-compiled file names on MinGW
+** Fix multithreaded access to internal hash tables
+** Emit a 1-based line number in error messages
+** Fix define-module ordering
+** Fix several POSIX functions to use the locale encoding
+** Add type and range checks to the complex generalized vector accessors
+** Fix unaligned accesses for bytevectors of complex numbers
+** Fix '(a #{.} b)
+** Fix erroneous VM stack overflow for canceled threads
+
+\f
+Changes in 2.0.1 (since 2.0.0):
+
+* Notable changes
+
+** guile.m4 supports linking with rpath
+
+The GUILE_FLAGS macro now sets GUILE_LIBS and GUILE_LTLIBS, which
+include appropriate directives to the linker to include libguile-2.0.so
+in the runtime library lookup path.
+
+** `begin' expands macros in its body before other expressions
+
+This enables support for programs like the following:
+
+ (begin
+ (define even?
+ (lambda (x)
+ (or (= x 0) (odd? (- x 1)))))
+ (define-syntax odd?
+ (syntax-rules ()
+ ((odd? x) (not (even? x)))))
+ (even? 10))
+
+** REPL reader usability enhancements
+
+The REPL now flushes input after a read error, which should prevent one
+error from causing other errors. The REPL also now interprets comments
+as whitespace.
+
+** REPL output has configurable width
+
+The REPL now defaults to output with the current terminal's width, in
+columns. See "Debug Commands" in the manual for more information on
+the ,width command.
+
+** Better C access to the module system
+
+Guile now has convenient C accessors to look up variables or values in
+modules and their public interfaces. See `scm_c_public_ref' and friends
+in "Accessing Modules from C" in the manual.
+
+** Added `scm_call_5', `scm_call_6'
+
+See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
+
+** Added `scm_from_latin1_keyword', `scm_from_utf8_keyword'
+
+See "Keyword Procedures" in the manual, for more. Note that
+`scm_from_locale_keyword' should not be used when the name is a C string
+constant.
+
+** R6RS unicode and string I/O work
+
+Added efficient implementations of `get-string-n' and `get-string-n!'
+for binary ports. Exported `current-input-port', `current-output-port'
+and `current-error-port' from `(rnrs io ports)', and enhanced support
+for transcoders.
+
+** Added `pointer->scm', `scm->pointer' to `(system foreign)'
+
+These procedure are useful if one needs to pass and receive SCM values
+to and from foreign functions. See "Foreign Variables" in the manual,
+for more.
+
+** Added `heap-allocated-since-gc' to `(gc-stats)'
+
+Also fixed the long-standing bug in the REPL `,stat' command.
+
+** Add `on-error' REPL option
+
+This option controls what happens when an error occurs at the REPL, and
+defaults to `debug', indicating that Guile should enter the debugger.
+Other values include `report', which will simply print a backtrace
+without entering the debugger. See "System Commands" in the manual.
+
+** Enforce immutability of string literals
+
+Attempting to mutate a string literal now causes a runtime error.
+
+** Fix pthread redirection
+
+Guile 2.0.0 shipped with headers that, if configured with pthread
+support, would re-define `pthread_create', `pthread_join', and other API
+to redirect to the BDW-GC wrappers, `GC_pthread_create', etc. This was
+unintended, and not necessary: because threads must enter Guile with
+`scm_with_guile', Guile can handle thread registration itself, without
+needing to make the GC aware of all threads. This oversight has been
+fixed.
+
+** `with-continuation-barrier' now unwinds on `quit'
+
+A throw to `quit' in a continuation barrier will cause Guile to exit.
+Before, it would do so before unwinding to the barrier, which would
+prevent cleanup handlers from running. This has been fixed so that it
+exits only after unwinding.
+
+** `string->pointer' and `pointer->string' have optional encoding arg
+
+This allows users of the FFI to more easily deal in strings with
+particular (non-locale) encodings, like "utf-8". See "Void Pointers and
+Byte Access" in the manual, for more.
+
+** R6RS fixnum arithmetic optimizations
+
+R6RS fixnum operations are are still slower than generic arithmetic,
+however.
+
+** New procedure: `define-inlinable'
+
+See "Inlinable Procedures" in the manual, for more.
+
+** New procedure: `exact-integer-sqrt'
+
+See "Integer Operations" in the manual, for more.
+
+** "Extended read syntax" for symbols parses better
+
+In #{foo}# symbols, backslashes are now treated as escapes, as the
+symbol-printing code intended. Additionally, "\x" within #{foo}# is now
+interpreted as starting an R6RS hex escape. This is backward compatible
+because the symbol printer would never produce a "\x" before. The
+printer also works better too.
+
+** Added `--fresh-auto-compile' option
+
+This allows a user to invalidate the auto-compilation cache. It's
+usually not needed. See "Compilation" in the manual, for a discussion.
+
+* Manual updates
+
+** GOOPS documentation updates
+
+** New man page
+
+Thanks to Mark Harig for improvements to guile.1.
+
+** SRFI-23 documented
+
+The humble `error' SRFI now has an entry in the manual.
+
+* New modules
+
+** `(ice-9 binary-ports)': "R6RS I/O Ports", in the manual
+** `(ice-9 eval-string)': "Fly Evaluation", in the manual
+** `(ice-9 command-line)', not documented yet
+
+* Bugs fixed
+
+** Fixed `iconv_t' memory leak on close-port
+** Fixed some leaks with weak hash tables
+** Export `vhash-delq' and `vhash-delv' from `(ice-9 vlist)'
+** `after-gc-hook' works again
+** `define-record-type' now allowed in nested contexts
+** `exact-integer-sqrt' now handles large integers correctly
+** Fixed C extension examples in manual
+** `vhash-delete' honors HASH argument
+** Make `locale-digit-grouping' more robust
+** Default exception printer robustness fixes
+** Fix presence of non-I CPPFLAGS in `guile-2.0.pc'
+** `read' updates line/column numbers when reading SCSH block comments
+** Fix imports of multiple custom interfaces of same module
+** Fix encoding scanning for non-seekable ports
+** Fix `setter' when called with a non-setter generic
+** Fix f32 and f64 bytevectors to not accept rationals
+** Fix description of the R6RS `finite?' in manual
+** Quotient, remainder and modulo accept inexact integers again
+** Fix `continue' within `while' to take zero arguments
+** Fix alignment for structures in FFI
+** Fix port-filename of stdin, stdout, stderr to match the docs
+** Fix weak hash table-related bug in `define-wrapped-pointer-type'
+** Fix partial continuation application with pending procedure calls
+** scm_{to,from}_locale_string use current locale, not current ports
+** Fix thread cleanup, by using a pthread_key destructor
+** Fix `quit' at the REPL
+** Fix a failure to sync regs in vm bytevector ops
+** Fix (texinfo reflection) to handle nested structures like syntax patterns
+** Fix stexi->html double translation
+** Fix tree-il->scheme fix for <prompt>
+** Fix compilation of <prompt> in <fix> in single-value context
+** Fix race condition in ensure-writable-dir
+** Fix error message on ,disassemble "non-procedure"
+** Fix prompt and abort with the boot evaluator
+** Fix `procedure->pointer' for functions returning `void'
+** Fix error reporting in dynamic-pointer
+** Fix problems detecting coding: in block comments
+** Fix duplicate load-path and load-compiled-path in compilation environment
+** Add fallback read(2) suppport for .go files if mmap(2) unavailable
+** Fix c32vector-set!, c64vector-set!
+** Fix mistakenly deprecated read syntax for uniform complex vectors
+** Fix parsing of exact numbers with negative exponents
+** Ignore SIGPIPE in (system repl server)
+** Fix optional second arg to R6RS log function
+** Fix R6RS `assert' to return true value.
+** Fix fencepost error when seeking in bytevector input ports
+** Gracefully handle `setlocale' errors when starting the REPL
+** Improve support of the `--disable-posix' configure option
+** Make sure R6RS binary ports pass `binary-port?' regardless of the locale
+** Gracefully handle unterminated UTF-8 sequences instead of hitting an `assert'
\f
-Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series):
+Changes in 2.0.0 (changes since the 1.8.x series):
* New modules (see the manual for details)
extend the list of filename extensions tried when loading files
(%load-extensions).
-** New reader options: `square-brackets' and `r6rs-hex-escapes'
+** New reader options: `square-brackets', `r6rs-hex-escapes',
+ `hungry-eol-escapes'
The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
`square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
escape sequences are incompatible with Guile's existing escapes, though,
so this option is off by default.
+Additionally, Guile follows the R6RS newline escaping rules when the
+`hungry-eol-escapes' option is enabled.
+
+See "String Syntax" in the manual, for more information.
+
** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
after installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
timestamps.
-Autocompiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
+Auto-compiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
will be created if needed.
-To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
-variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line.
+To inhibit automatic compilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
+variable to 0, or pass --no-auto-compile on the Guile command line.
** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
options. See "Network Sockets and Communication" in the manual, for
more information.
+** `recv!', `recvfrom!', `send', `sendto' now deal in bytevectors
+
+These socket procedures now take bytevectors as arguments, instead of
+strings. There is some deprecated string support, however.
+
** New GNU procedures: `setaffinity' and `getaffinity'.
See "Processes" in the manual, for more information.
(define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
-It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g.
-`(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate
-feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the
-default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0
-in response to user feedback.
+It is possible to circumvent this restriction with e.g.
+`(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. Contact the list if you
+have any questions.
** Support for `letrec*'
actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
`read-hash-extend' mechanism.
+** `unquote' and `unquote-splicing' accept multiple expressions
+
+As per the R6RS, these syntax operators can now accept any number of
+expressions to unquote.
+
** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
#; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
+** `positions' reader option enabled by default
+
+This change allows primitive-load without --auto-compile to also
+propagate source information through the expander, for better errors and
+to let macros know their source locations. The compiler was already
+turning it on anyway.
+
** New macro: `current-source-location'
The macro returns the current source location (to be documented).
loading a module is one that has the needed bindings, instead of relying
on chance.
+** `load' is a macro (!) that resolves paths relative to source file dir
+
+The familiar Schem `load' procedure is now a macro that captures the
+name of the source file being expanded, and dispatches to the new
+`load-in-vicinity'. Referencing `load' by bare name returns a closure
+that embeds the current source file name.
+
+This fix allows `load' of relative paths to be resolved with respect to
+the location of the file that calls `load'.
+
** Many syntax errors have different texts now
Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
+** New syntax: define-once
+
+`define-once' is like Lisp's `defvar': it creates a toplevel binding,
+but only if one does not exist already.
+
** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
`(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
The `format' procedure in `(ice-9 format)' now emits a deprecation
warning if a number is passed as its first argument.
+Also, it used to be that you could omit passing a port to `format', in
+some cases. This still works, but has been formally deprecated.
+
** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
`*unspecified*' is no longer a variable, so it is optimized properly by
the compiler, and is not `set!'-able.
+** Changes and bugfixes in numerics code
+
+*** Added six new sets of fast quotient and remainder operators
+
+Added six new sets of fast quotient and remainder operator pairs with
+different semantics than the R5RS operators. They support not only
+integers, but all reals, including exact rationals and inexact
+floating point numbers.
+
+These procedures accept two real numbers N and D, where the divisor D
+must be non-zero. Each set of operators computes an integer quotient
+Q and a real remainder R such that N = Q*D + R and |R| < |D|. They
+differ only in how N/D is rounded to produce Q.
+
+`euclidean-quotient' returns the integer Q and `euclidean-remainder'
+returns the real R such that N = Q*D + R and 0 <= R < |D|. `euclidean/'
+returns both Q and R, and is more efficient than computing each
+separately. Note that when D > 0, `euclidean-quotient' returns
+floor(N/D), and when D < 0 it returns ceiling(N/D).
+
+`centered-quotient', `centered-remainder', and `centered/' are similar
+except that the range of remainders is -abs(D/2) <= R < abs(D/2), and
+`centered-quotient' rounds N/D to the nearest integer. Note that these
+operators are equivalent to the R6RS integer division operators `div',
+`mod', `div-and-mod', `div0', `mod0', and `div0-and-mod0'.
+
+`floor-quotient' and `floor-remainder' compute Q and R, respectively,
+where Q has been rounded toward negative infinity. `floor/' returns
+both Q and R, and is more efficient than computing each separately.
+Note that when applied to integers, `floor-remainder' is equivalent to
+the R5RS integer-only `modulo' operator. `ceiling-quotient',
+`ceiling-remainder', and `ceiling/' are similar except that Q is
+rounded toward positive infinity.
+
+For `truncate-quotient', `truncate-remainder', and `truncate/', Q is
+rounded toward zero. Note that when applied to integers,
+`truncate-quotient' and `truncate-remainder' are equivalent to the
+R5RS integer-only operators `quotient' and `remainder'.
+
+For `round-quotient', `round-remainder', and `round/', Q is rounded to
+the nearest integer, with ties going to the nearest even integer.
+
+*** Complex number changes
+
+Guile is now able to represent non-real complex numbers whose
+imaginary part is an _inexact_ zero (0.0 or -0.0), per R6RS.
+Previously, such numbers were immediately changed into inexact reals.
+
+(real? 0.0+0.0i) now returns #f, per R6RS, although (zero? 0.0+0.0i)
+still returns #t, per R6RS. (= 0 0.0+0.0i) and (= 0.0 0.0+0.0i) are
+#t, but the same comparisons using `eqv?' or `equal?' are #f.
+
+Like other non-real numbers, these complex numbers with inexact zero
+imaginary part will raise exceptions is passed to procedures requiring
+reals, such as `<', `>', `<=', `>=', `min', `max', `positive?',
+`negative?', `inf?', `nan?', `finite?', etc.
+
+**** `make-rectangular' changes
+
+scm_make_rectangular `make-rectangular' now returns a real number only
+if the imaginary part is an _exact_ 0. Previously, it would return a
+real number if the imaginary part was an inexact zero.
+
+scm_c_make_rectangular now always returns a non-real complex number,
+even if the imaginary part is zero. Previously, it would return a
+real number if the imaginary part was zero.
+
+**** `make-polar' changes
+
+scm_make_polar `make-polar' now returns a real number only if the
+angle or magnitude is an _exact_ 0. If the magnitude is an exact 0,
+it now returns an exact 0. Previously, it would return a real
+number if the imaginary part was an inexact zero.
+
+scm_c_make_polar now always returns a non-real complex number, even if
+the imaginary part is 0.0. Previously, it would return a real number
+if the imaginary part was 0.0.
+
+**** `imag-part' changes
+
+scm_imag_part `imag-part' now returns an exact 0 if applied to an
+inexact real number. Previously it returned an inexact zero in this
+case.
+
+*** `eqv?' and `equal?' now compare numbers equivalently
+
+scm_equal_p `equal?' now behaves equivalently to scm_eqv_p `eqv?' for
+numeric values, per R5RS. Previously, equal? worked differently,
+e.g. `(equal? 0.0 -0.0)' returned #t but `(eqv? 0.0 -0.0)' returned #f,
+and `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' returned #f but `(eqv? +nan.0 +nan.0)'
+returned #t.
+
+*** `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' now returns #t
+
+Previously, `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' returned #f, although
+`(let ((x +nan.0)) (equal? x x))' and `(eqv? +nan.0 +nan.0)'
+both returned #t. R5RS requires that `equal?' behave like
+`eqv?' when comparing numbers.
+
+*** Change in handling products `*' involving exact 0
+
+scm_product `*' now handles exact 0 differently. A product containing
+an exact 0 now returns an exact 0 if and only if the other arguments
+are all exact. An inexact zero is returned if and only if the other
+arguments are all finite but not all exact. If an infinite or NaN
+value is present, a NaN value is returned. Previously, any product
+containing an exact 0 yielded an exact 0, regardless of the other
+arguments.
+
+*** `expt' and `integer-expt' changes when the base is 0
+
+While `(expt 0 0)' is still 1, and `(expt 0 N)' for N > 0 is still
+zero, `(expt 0 N)' for N < 0 is now a NaN value, and likewise for
+integer-expt. This is more correct, and conforming to R6RS, but seems
+to be incompatible with R5RS, which would return 0 for all non-zero
+values of N.
+
+*** `expt' and `integer-expt' are more generic, less strict
+
+When raising to an exact non-negative integer exponent, `expt' and
+`integer-expt' are now able to exponentiate any object that can be
+multiplied using `*'. They can also raise an object to an exact
+negative integer power if its reciprocal can be taken using `/'.
+In order to allow this, the type of the first argument is no longer
+checked when raising to an exact integer power. If the exponent is 0
+or 1, the first parameter is not manipulated at all, and need not
+even support multiplication.
+
+*** Infinities are no longer integers, nor rationals
+
+scm_integer_p `integer?' and scm_rational_p `rational?' now return #f
+for infinities, per R6RS. Previously they returned #t for real
+infinities. The real infinities and NaNs are still considered real by
+scm_real `real?' however, per R6RS.
+
+*** NaNs are no longer rationals
+
+scm_rational_p `rational?' now returns #f for NaN values, per R6RS.
+Previously it returned #t for real NaN values. They are still
+considered real by scm_real `real?' however, per R6RS.
+
+*** `inf?' and `nan?' now throw exceptions for non-reals
+
+The domain of `inf?' and `nan?' is the real numbers. Guile now signals
+an error when a non-real number or non-number is passed to these
+procedures. (Note that NaNs _are_ considered numbers by scheme, despite
+their name).
+
+*** `rationalize' bugfixes and changes
+
+Fixed bugs in scm_rationalize `rationalize'. Previously, it returned
+exact integers unmodified, although that was incorrect if the epsilon
+was at least 1 or inexact, e.g. (rationalize 4 1) should return 3 per
+R5RS and R6RS, but previously it returned 4. It also now handles
+cases involving infinities and NaNs properly, per R6RS.
+
+*** Trigonometric functions now return exact numbers in some cases
+
+scm_sin `sin', scm_cos `cos', scm_tan `tan', scm_asin `asin', scm_acos
+`acos', scm_atan `atan', scm_sinh `sinh', scm_cosh `cosh', scm_tanh
+`tanh', scm_sys_asinh `asinh', scm_sys_acosh `acosh', and
+scm_sys_atanh `atanh' now return exact results in some cases.
+
+*** New procedure: `finite?'
+
+Add scm_finite_p `finite?' from R6RS to guile core, which returns #t
+if and only if its argument is neither infinite nor a NaN. Note that
+this is not the same as (not (inf? x)) or (not (infinite? x)), since
+NaNs are neither finite nor infinite.
+
+*** Improved exactness handling for complex number parsing
+
+When parsing non-real complex numbers, exactness specifiers are now
+applied to each component, as is done in PLT Scheme. For complex
+numbers written in rectangular form, exactness specifiers are applied
+to the real and imaginary parts before calling scm_make_rectangular.
+For complex numbers written in polar form, exactness specifiers are
+applied to the magnitude and angle before calling scm_make_polar.
+
+Previously, exactness specifiers were applied to the number as a whole
+_after_ calling scm_make_rectangular or scm_make_polar.
+
+For example, (string->number "#i5.0+0i") now does the equivalent of:
+
+ (make-rectangular (exact->inexact 5.0) (exact->inexact 0))
+
+which yields 5.0+0.0i. Previously it did the equivalent of:
+
+ (exact->inexact (make-rectangular 5.0 0))
+
+which yielded 5.0.
+
** Unicode characters
Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
code. This use is now discouraged. Binary input and output is
currently supported by opening ports in the ISO-8859-1 locale.
+** Source files default to UTF-8.
+
+If source files do not specify their encoding via a `coding:' block,
+the default encoding is UTF-8, instead of being taken from the current
+locale.
+
+** Interactive Guile installs the current locale.
+
+Instead of leaving the user in the "C" locale, running the Guile REPL
+installs the current locale. [FIXME xref?]
+
** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
in which case it was `(guile-user)'. This has been fixed to have all
new threads unknown to Guile default to `(guile-user)'.
+** New helpers: `print-exception', `set-exception-printer!'
+
+These functions implement an extensible exception printer. Guile
+registers printers for all of the exceptions it throws. Users may add
+their own printers. There is also `scm_print_exception', for use by C
+programs. Pleasantly, this allows SRFI-35 and R6RS exceptions to be
+printed appropriately.
+
** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
functions are deprecated.
+** `getopt-long' parsing errors throw to `quit', not `misc-error'
+
+This change should inhibit backtraces on argument parsing errors.
+`getopt-long' has been modified to print out the error that it throws
+itself.
+
** New primitive: `tmpfile'.
See "File System" in the manual.
crazy. Please change to use `catch', possibly with a throw-handler, or
`with-throw-handler'.
+** Deprecated: primitive properties
+
+The `primitive-make-property', `primitive-property-set!',
+`primitive-property-ref', and `primitive-property-del!' procedures were
+crufty and only used to implement object properties, which has a new,
+threadsafe implementation. Use object properties or weak hash tables
+instead.
+
** Deprecated `@bind' syntax
`@bind' was part of an older implementation of the Emacs Lisp language,
** Miscellaneous other deprecations
-`apply-to-args', `has-suffix?', `scheme-file-suffix'
-`get-option', `for-next-option', `display-usage-report',
-`transform-usage-lambda', `collect', `set-batch-mode?!',
-
`cuserid' has been deprecated, as it only returns 8 bytes of a user's
login. Use `(passwd:name (getpwuid (geteuid)))' instead.
+Additionally, the procedures `apply-to-args', `has-suffix?', `scheme-file-suffix'
+`get-option', `for-next-option', `display-usage-report',
+`transform-usage-lambda', `collect', and `set-batch-mode?!' have all
+been deprecated.
+
** Add support for unbound fluids
See `make-unbound-fluid', `fluid-unset!', and `fluid-bound?' in the
Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
code easier and less error-prone.
-** New procedures: `scm_to_latin1_stringn', `scm_from_latin1_stringn'
+** New procedures: `scm_to_stringn', `scm_from_stringn'
+** New procedures: scm_{to,from}_{utf8,latin1}_symbol{n,}
+** New procedures: scm_{to,from}_{utf8,utf32,latin1}_string{n,}
+
+These new procedures convert to and from string representations in
+particular encodings.
-Use these procedures when you know you have latin1-encoded or
-ASCII-encoded strings.
+Users should continue to use locale encoding for user input, user
+output, or interacting with the C library.
-** New procedures: `scm_to_stringn', `scm_from_stringn'
+Use the Latin-1 functions for ASCII, and for literals in source code.
-Use these procedures if you want to encode or decode from a particular
-locale.
+Use UTF-8 functions for interaction with modern libraries which deal in
+UTF-8, and UTF-32 for interaction with utf32-using libraries.
+
+Otherwise, use scm_to_stringn or scm_from_stringn with a specific
+encoding.
** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.