Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
-Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 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.
-\f
-(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 1.9.3 (since the 1.9.2 prerelease):
+Changes in 2.0.0 (changes since the 1.8.x series):
+* New modules (see the manual for details)
-** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
+** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
+** `(srfi srfi-27)', sources of random bits
+** `(srfi srfi-38)', External Representation for Data With Shared Structure
+** `(srfi srfi-42)', eager comprehensions
+** `(srfi srfi-45)', primitives for expressing iterative lazy algorithms
+** `(srfi srfi-67)', compare procedures
+** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
+** `(ice-9 futures)', fine-grain parallelism
+** `(rnrs bytevectors)', the R6RS bytevector API
+** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
+** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
+** `(ice-9 vlist)', lists with constant-time random access; hash lists
+** `(system foreign)', foreign function interface
+** `(sxml match)', a pattern matcher for SXML
+** `(srfi srfi-9 gnu)', extensions to the SRFI-9 record library
+** `(system vm coverage)', a line-by-line code coverage library
+** `(web uri)', URI data type, parser, and unparser
+** `(web http)', HTTP header parsers and unparsers
+** `(web request)', HTTP request data type, reader, and writer
+** `(web response)', HTTP response data type, reader, and writer
+** `(web server)', Generic HTTP server
+** `(ice-9 poll)', a poll wrapper
+** `(web server http)', HTTP-over-TCP web server implementation
+
+** Replaced `(ice-9 match)' with Alex Shinn's compatible, hygienic matcher.
+
+Guile's copy of Andrew K. Wright's `match' library has been replaced by
+a compatible hygienic implementation by Alex Shinn. It is now
+documented, see "Pattern Matching" in the manual.
+
+Compared to Andrew K. Wright's `match', the new `match' lacks
+`match-define', `match:error-control', `match:set-error-control',
+`match:error', `match:set-error', and all structure-related procedures.
+
+** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
+
+The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
+toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
+"Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
+
+** Integration of lalr-scm, a parser generator
+
+Guile has included Dominique Boucher's fine `lalr-scm' parser generator
+as `(system base lalr)'. See "LALR(1) Parsing" in the manual, for more
+information.
-The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
-backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
-`scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
+* Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
-Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
-code easier and less error-prone.
+** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
-** Files loaded with `load' will now be compiled automatically.
+Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
+3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
-As with files loaded via `primitive-load-path', `load' will also compile
-its target if autocompilation is enabled, and a fresh compiled file is
-not found.
+** Evaluating Scheme code does not use the C stack.
-There are two points of difference to note, however. First, `load' does
-not search `GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH' for the file; it only looks in the
-autocompilation directory, normally a subdirectory of ~/.cache/guile.
+Besides when compiling Guile itself, Guile no longer uses a recursive C
+function as an evaluator. This obviates the need to check the C stack
+pointer for overflow. Continuations still capture the C stack, however.
-Secondly, autocompilation also applies to files loaded via the -l
-command-line argument -- so the user may experience a slight slowdown
-the first time they run a Guile script, as the script is autocompiled.
+** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
+ GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
-** Support for non-ASCII source code files
+GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
+for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
+files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
+GUILE_SYSTEM_PATH.
-The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
-non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
-should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
-there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
-declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
-of Source Files".
+** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
-The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
-code. This use is now discouraged.
+Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. See
+"Using Guile Interactively" in the manual, for more information.
-** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
+** Remove old Emacs interface
-Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
-operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
-have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
-failures.
+Guile had an unused `--emacs' command line argument that was supposed to
+help when running Guile inside Emacs. This option has been removed, and
+the helper functions `named-module-use!' and `load-emacs-interface' have
+been deprecated.
+
+** Add `(system repl server)' module and `--listen' command-line argument
+
+The `(system repl server)' module exposes procedures to listen on
+sockets for connections, and serve REPLs to those clients. The --listen
+command-line argument allows any Guile program to thus be remotely
+debuggable.
-See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
-`set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
-and `port-conversion-strategy'.
+See "Invoking Guile" for more information on `--listen'.
-** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
+** Command line additions
-** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
+The guile binary now supports a new switch "-x", which can be used to
+extend the list of filename extensions tried when loading files
+(%load-extensions).
-The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
-characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
-character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
-Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
+** New reader options: `square-brackets', `r6rs-hex-escapes',
+ `hungry-eol-escapes'
-** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
+The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
+`square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
+parentheses. This option is on by default.
-`char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
-Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
-Unicode code points.
+When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
+will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS. R6RS string
+escape sequences are incompatible with Guile's existing escapes, though,
+so this option is off by default.
-** Unicode symbol support
+Additionally, Guile follows the R6RS newline escaping rules when the
+`hungry-eol-escapes' option is enabled.
-One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
+See "String Syntax" in the manual, for more information.
-** New readline history functions
+** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
+
+The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
+profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
+time. See `,help profile' for more information.
-The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
-write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
-History library functions.
+Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
+during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
-** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
- dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
+** Recursive debugging REPL on error
-Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
-respectively.
+When Guile sees an error at the REPL, instead of saving the stack, Guile
+will directly enter a recursive REPL in the dynamic context of the
+error. See "Error Handling" in the manual, for more information.
-** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
- scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
- scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
- scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
+A recursive REPL is the same as any other REPL, except that it
+has been augmented with debugging information, so that one can inspect
+the context of the error. The debugger has been integrated with the REPL
+via a set of debugging meta-commands.
-These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
+For example, one may access a backtrace with `,backtrace' (or
+`,bt'). See "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for more
+information.
-** scm_array_p has one argument, not two
+** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
-Use of the second argument produced a deprecation warning, so it is
-unlikely that any code out there actually used this functionality.
+Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
+information.
-** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
+** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
-GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
-This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
+Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
+`/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
+include `/path/to/lib'.
-** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes
-
-Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information.
+** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
+Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
+mouse.
-\f
-Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series):
+** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
+
+When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
+version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
+allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
+installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
+in the common case.
-* New modules (see the manual for details)
+** Value history in the REPL on by default
-** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
-** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
-** `(rnrs bytevector)', the R6RS bytevector API
-** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
-** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
+By default, the REPL will save computed values in variables like `$1',
+`$2', and the like. There are programmatic and interactive interfaces to
+control this. See "Value History" in the manual, for more information.
-* Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
+** Readline tab completion for arguments
-** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
+When readline is enabled, tab completion works for arguments too, not
+just for the operator position.
-Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
-3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
+** Expression-oriented readline history
+
+Guile's readline history now tries to operate on expressions instead of
+input lines. Let us know what you think!
-** The stack limit is now initialized from the environment.
+** Interactive Guile follows GNU conventions
-If getrlimit(2) is available and a stack limit is set, Guile will set
-its stack limit to 80% of the rlimit. Otherwise the limit is 160000
-words, a four-fold increase from the earlier default limit.
+As recommended by the GPL, Guile now shows a brief copyright and
+warranty disclaimer on startup, along with pointers to more information.
-** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
- GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
+* Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
-GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
-for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
-files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
-GUILE_SYSTEM_PATH.
+** Support for R6RS libraries
-** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
+The `library' and `import' forms from the latest Scheme report have been
+added to Guile, in such a way that R6RS libraries share a namespace with
+Guile modules. R6RS modules may import Guile modules, and are available
+for Guile modules to import via use-modules and all the rest. See "R6RS
+Libraries" in the manual for more information.
-Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. While
-it is self-documenting to an extent, the new REPL has not yet been
-documented in the manual. This will be fixed before 2.0.
+** Implementations of R6RS libraries
-** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
+Guile now has implementations for all of the libraries defined in the
+R6RS. Thanks to Julian Graham for this excellent hack. See "R6RS
+Standard Libraries" in the manual for a full list of libraries.
-Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
+** Partial R6RS compatibility
+
+Guile now has enough support for R6RS to run a reasonably large subset
+of R6RS programs.
+
+Guile is not fully R6RS compatible. Many incompatibilities are simply
+bugs, though some parts of Guile will remain R6RS-incompatible for the
+foreseeable future. See "R6RS Incompatibilities" in the manual, for more
information.
-* Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
+Please contact bug-guile@gnu.org if you have found an issue not
+mentioned in that compatibility list.
+
+** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
+
+Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
+still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
+compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
+primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
+
+This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
+to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
+providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
+code, and simplifying debugging.
+
+As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
+representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
+
+There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
+takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
+information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
+both of these situations.
+
+There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
+public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
+we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
+contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
not apply to the compiler.
-** Files loaded with `primitive-load-path' will now be compiled
- automatically.
+** No more `local-eval'
+
+`local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
+lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
+environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
+and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
+function.
+
+If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
+own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
+anyway.
+
+** Scheme source files will now be compiled automatically.
If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
.go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
-Note that this mechanism depends on preservation of the .scm and .go
-modification times; if the .scm or .go files are moved after
-installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
+Note that this mechanism depends on the timestamp of the .go file being
+newer than that of the .scm file; if the .scm or .go files are moved
+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.
-Note that there is currently a bug here: automatic compilation will
-sometimes be attempted when it shouldn't.
+** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
-For example, the old (lang elisp) modules are meant to be interpreted,
-not compiled. This bug will be fixed before 2.0. FIXME 2.0: Should say
-something here about module-transformer called for compile.
+Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
+in the next prerelease.
-** Files loaded with `load' will now be compiled automatically.
+** New POSIX procedure: `getsid'
-As with files loaded via `primitive-load-path', `load' will also compile
-its target if autocompilation is enabled, and a fresh compiled file is
-not found.
+Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
-There are two points of difference to note, however. First, `load' does
-not search `GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH' for the file; it only looks in the
-autocompilation directory, normally a subdirectory of ~/.cache/guile.
+** New POSIX procedure: `getaddrinfo'
-Secondly, autocompilation also applies to files loaded via the -l
-command-line argument -- so the user may experience a slight slowdown
-the first time they run a Guile script, as the script is autocompiled.
+Scheme binding for the `getaddrinfo' C library function.
-** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
+** Multicast socket options
-Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
-in the next prerelease.
+Support was added for the IP_MULTICAST_TTL and IP_MULTICAST_IF socket
+options. See "Network Sockets and Communication" in the manual, for
+more information.
-** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
+** `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.
-** BUG: (procedure-property func 'arity) does not work on compiled
- procedures
+** New procedures: `compose', `negate', and `const'
-This will be fixed one way or another before 2.0.
+See "Higher-Order Functions" in the manual, for more information.
+
+** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
`remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
- `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments',
+ `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments'
The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
`(ice-9 session).
-** Deprecated: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
+** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
-These procedures will not work with syncase expansion, and indeed are
-not used in the normal course of Guile. They are still used by the old
-Emacs Lisp support, however.
+These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are
+no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you
+probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will
+probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway).
** New language: ECMAScript
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
Brainfuck language itself.
-** Defmacros may now have docstrings.
+** New language: Elisp
+
+Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can
+now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel
+Kraft and Brian Templeton, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
+
+** Better documentation infrastructure for macros
+
+It is now possible to introspect on the type of a macro, e.g.
+syntax-rules, identifier-syntax, etc, and extract information about that
+macro, such as the syntax-rules patterns or the defmacro arguments.
+`(texinfo reflection)' takes advantage of this to give better macro
+documentation.
+
+** Support for arbitrary procedure metadata
-Indeed, any macro may have a docstring. `object-documentation' from
-`(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to retrieve the docstring, once you
-have a macro value -- but see the above note about first-class macros.
-Docstrings are associated with the syntax transformer procedures.
+Building on its support for docstrings, Guile now supports multiple
+docstrings, adding them to the tail of a compiled procedure's
+properties. For example:
+
+ (define (foo)
+ "one"
+ "two"
+ 3)
+ (procedure-properties foo)
+ => ((name . foo) (documentation . "one") (documentation . "two"))
+
+Also, vectors of pairs are now treated as additional metadata entries:
+
+ (define (bar)
+ #((quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
+ 3)
+ (procedure-properties bar)
+ => ((name . bar) (quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
+
+This allows arbitrary literals to be embedded as metadata in a compiled
+procedure.
** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
forms.
It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
Thankfully, this has been fixed.
-** New function, `procedure-module'
-
-While useful on its own, `procedure-module' is used by psyntax on syntax
-transformers to determine the module in which to scope introduced
-identifiers.
+** Support for version information in Guile's `module' form
+
+Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. See "R6RS Version
+References", "General Information about Modules", "Using Guile Modules",
+and "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual for more information.
+
+** Support for renaming bindings on module export
+
+Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
+export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
+should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
+for more information.
+
+** New procedure: `module-export-all!'
+
+This procedure exports all current and future bindings from a module.
+Use as `(module-export-all! (current-module))'.
+
+** New procedure `reload-module', and `,reload' REPL command
+
+See "Module System Reflection" and "Module Commands" in the manual, for
+more information.
** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
-The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. It is still
-missing documentation, however.
+The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. See "Eval When"
+in the manual, for more information.
** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
contexts.
(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*'
+
+Guile now supports `letrec*', a recursive lexical binding operator in
+which the identifiers are bound in order. See "Local Bindings" in the
+manual, for more details.
+
+** Internal definitions now expand to `letrec*'
+
+Following the R6RS, internal definitions now expand to letrec* instead
+of letrec. The following program is invalid for R5RS, but valid for
+R6RS:
+
+ (define (foo)
+ (define bar 10)
+ (define baz (+ bar 20))
+ baz)
+
+ ;; R5RS and Guile <= 1.8:
+ (foo) => Unbound variable: bar
+ ;; R6RS and Guile >= 2.0:
+ (foo) => 30
+
+This change should not affect correct R5RS programs, or programs written
+in earlier Guile dialects.
+
+** Macro expansion produces structures instead of s-expressions
+
+In the olden days, macroexpanding an s-expression would yield another
+s-expression. Though the lexical variables were renamed, expansions of
+core forms like `if' and `begin' were still non-hygienic, as they relied
+on the toplevel definitions of `if' et al being the conventional ones.
+
+The solution is to expand to structures instead of s-expressions. There
+is an `if' structure, a `begin' structure, a `toplevel-ref' structure,
+etc. The expander already did this for compilation, producing Tree-IL
+directly; it has been changed now to do so when expanding for the
+evaluator as well.
** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
context.
+** Support for settable identifier syntax
+
+Following the R6RS, "variable transformers" are settable
+identifier-syntax. See "Identifier macros" in the manual, for more
+information.
+
+** syntax-case treats `_' as a placeholder
+
+Following R6RS, a `_' in a syntax-rules or syntax-case pattern matches
+anything, and binds no pattern variables. Unlike the R6RS, Guile also
+permits `_' to be in the literals list for a pattern.
+
** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
(define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
(double-literal 2) => 4
-See the (currently missing) documentation for eval-when for more
-information.
+See the documentation for eval-when for more information.
-** New variable, %pre-modules-transformer
+** `macroexpand' produces structures, not S-expressions.
-Need to document this one some more.
+Given the need to maintain referential transparency, both lexically and
+modular, the result of expanding Scheme expressions is no longer itself
+an s-expression. If you want a human-readable approximation of the
+result of `macroexpand', call `tree-il->scheme' from `(language
+tree-il)'.
-** Temporarily removed functions: `macroexpand', `macroexpand-1'
+** Removed function: `macroexpand-1'
-`macroexpand' will be added back before 2.0. It is unclear how to
-implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though PLT Scheme does prove
-that it is possible.
+It is unclear how to implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though
+PLT Scheme does prove that it is possible.
** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
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
information.
+** Prompts: Delimited, composable continuations
+
+Guile now has prompts as part of its primitive language. See "Prompts"
+in the manual, for more information.
+
+Expressions entered in at the REPL, or from the command line, are
+surrounded by a prompt with the default prompt tag.
+
** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
works (with compiled procedures)
that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
number of stack frames.
-** backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
+** Backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
active in the current continuation
Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
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).
+
** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
through to the expanded code
(define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
-default. If there is sufficient demand, this syntax can be supported
-again by default.
+default. Use the `(ice-9 curried-definitions)' module to get back the
+old behavior.
+
+** New procedure, `define!'
+
+`define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
+and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
+programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
+less verbose than `module-define!'.
** All modules have names now
created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
+** The module namespace is now separate from the value namespace
+
+It was a little-known implementation detail of Guile's module system
+that it was built on a single hierarchical namespace of values -- that
+if there was a module named `(foo bar)', then in the module named
+`(foo)' there was a binding from `bar' to the `(foo bar)' module.
+
+This was a neat trick, but presented a number of problems. One problem
+was that the bindings in a module were not apparent from the module
+itself; perhaps the `(foo)' module had a private binding for `bar', and
+then an external contributor defined `(foo bar)'. In the end there can
+be only one binding, so one of the two will see the wrong thing, and
+produce an obtuse error of unclear provenance.
+
+Also, the public interface of a module was also bound in the value
+namespace, as `%module-public-interface'. This was a hack from the early
+days of Guile's modules.
+
+Both of these warts have been fixed by the addition of fields in the
+`module' data type. Access to modules and their interfaces from the
+value namespace has been deprecated, and all accessors use the new
+record accessors appropriately.
+
+When Guile is built with support for deprecated code, as is the default,
+the value namespace is still searched for modules and public interfaces,
+and a deprecation warning is raised as appropriate.
+
+Finally, to support lazy loading of modules as one used to be able to do
+with module binder procedures, Guile now has submodule binders, called
+if a given submodule is not found. See boot-9.scm for more information.
+
+** New procedures: module-ref-submodule, module-define-submodule,
+ nested-ref-module, nested-define-module!, local-ref-module,
+ local-define-module
+
+These new accessors are like their bare variants, but operate on
+namespaces instead of values.
+
+** The (app modules) module tree is officially deprecated
+
+It used to be that one could access a module named `(foo bar)' via
+`(nested-ref the-root-module '(app modules foo bar))'. The `(app
+modules)' bit was a never-used and never-documented abstraction, and has
+been deprecated. See the following mail for a full discussion:
+
+ http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2010-04/msg00168.html
+
+The `%app' binding is also deprecated.
+
+** `module-filename' field and accessor
+
+Modules now record the file in which they are defined. This field may be
+accessed with the new `module-filename' procedure.
+
+** Modules load within a known environment
+
+It takes a few procedure calls to define a module, and those procedure
+calls need to be in scope. Now we ensure that the current module when
+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
any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
you to contact the Guile developers.
+** Hygienic macros documented as the primary syntactic extension mechanism.
+
+The macro documentation was finally fleshed out with some documentation
+on `syntax-rules' and `syntax-case' macros, and other parts of the macro
+expansion process. See "Macros" in the manual, for details.
+
** psyntax is now the default expander
Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
(which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
-`sc-expand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
+`macroexpand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
transformer.
Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
`bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
`identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
+** Tail patterns in syntax-case
+
+Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
+syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
+are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
+match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
+
+ (define-syntax case
+ (syntax-rules (else)
+ ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
+ [...])))
+
+Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
+tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
+patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
+
** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
by nonhygienic macros.
(bind-x 10 (ref x)))
It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
-as code is ported over from defmacros to syntax-case, it is possible to
-run into situations like this. In the future, Guile will probably port
-its `while' macro to syntax-case, which makes this issue one to know
-about.
+if you have defmacros that expand to hygienic macros, it is possible to
+run into situations like this. For example, if you have a defmacro that
+generates a `while' expression, the `break' bound by the `while' may not
+be visible within other parts of your defmacro. The solution is to port
+from defmacros to syntax-rules or syntax-case.
** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
/referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
'if)'.
-This decision may be revisited before the 2.0 release. Feedback welcome
-to guile-devel@gnu.org (subscription required) or bug-guile@gnu.org (no
-subscription required).
+** Macros may now have docstrings.
+
+`object-documentation' from `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to
+retrieve the docstring, once you have a macro value -- but see the above
+note about first-class macros. Docstrings are associated with the syntax
+transformer procedures.
+
+** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
+
+The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
+`(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
+to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
+
+** Procedures may now have more than one arity.
+
+This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
+arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
+`(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
+Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
+
+** Deprecate arity access via (procedure-properties proc 'arity)
+
+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
+accessor.
+
+** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
+
+As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
+compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
+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
+will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
+output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
+more details.
+
+There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
+print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
+documentation for more details.
+
+** Better pretty-printing
+
+Indentation recognizes more special forms, like `syntax-case', and read
+macros like `quote' are printed better.
+
+** Passing a number as the destination of `format' is deprecated
+
+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
+have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
+or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
+else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
+APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
+addressed by element and not by byte.
+
+So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
+numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
+endianness, as one would expect.
+
+Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
+also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
+were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
+u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
+same to Guile.
+
+In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
+input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
+
+Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
+inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
+
+See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
+
+** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
+
+Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
+are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
+`any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
+
+Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
+import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
+
+See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
+
+** New syntax: include-from-path.
+
+`include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
+the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
+
+** New syntax: quasisyntax.
+
+`quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
+documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
+implementation.
+
+** `*unspecified*' is identifier syntax
+
+`*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
of Source Files".
The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
-code. This use is now discouraged.
+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
processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
and was unmaintained.
-** New macro type: syncase-macro
+** Compile-time warnings
-XXX Need to decide whether to document this for 2.0, probably should:
-make-syncase-macro, make-extended-syncase-macro, macro-type,
-syncase-macro-type, syncase-macro-binding
+Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
+-Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
+`#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
+invocation. Warnings are also enabled by default for expressions entered
+at the REPL.
+
+Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
+procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
+`#:warnings' as above.
+
+Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to
+warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables, and `-Wformat',
+to check for various errors related to the `format' procedure.
** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
-** Fix bad interaction between `false-if-exception' and stack-call.
+** New threads are in `(guile-user)' by default, not `(guile)'
+
+It used to be that a new thread entering Guile would do so in the
+`(guile)' module, unless this was the first time Guile was initialized,
+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
+special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
+associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
+underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
+
+This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
+dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
+implement method combinations.
+
+** Applicable struct support
+
+One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
+To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
+That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
+that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
+`<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
+`funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
+`<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
+the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
+
+** GOOPS cleanups.
+
+GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
+but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
+never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
+were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
+replaced by applicable structs, mentioned above.
+
+** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
+
+A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
+call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
+instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
+vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
+
+** eqv? not a generic
-Exceptions thrown by `false-if-exception' were erronously causing the
-stack to be saved, causing later errors to show the incorrectly-saved
-backtrace. This has been fixed.
+One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
+more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
+should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
+sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
+
+** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
+
+Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
+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.
+
+** Random generator state may be serialized to a datum
+
+`random-state->datum' will serialize a random state to a datum, which
+may be written out, read back in later, and revivified using
+`datum->random-state'. See "Random" in the manual, for more details.
+
+** Fix random number generator on 64-bit platforms
+
+There was a nasty bug on 64-bit platforms in which asking for a random
+integer with a range between 2**32 and 2**64 caused a segfault. After
+many embarrassing iterations, this was fixed.
+
+** Fast bit operations.
+
+The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
+have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
+it's for number crunching too.
+
+** Faster SRFI-9 record access
+
+SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
+and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
+inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
+(e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
+
+** R6RS block comment support
+
+Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
+marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
+
+** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
+
+To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
+test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
+
+ (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
+ ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
+ (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
+ (guile
+ ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
+ ;; separate compilation phase.
+ (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
+** New fluid: `%file-port-name-canonicalization'
+
+This fluid parameterizes the file names that are associated with file
+ports. If %file-port-name-canonicalization is 'absolute, then file names
+are canonicalized to be absolute paths. If it is 'relative, then the
+name is canonicalized, but any prefix corresponding to a member of
+`%load-path' is stripped off. Otherwise the names are passed through
+unchanged.
+
+In addition, the `compile-file' and `compile-and-load' procedures bind
+%file-port-name-canonicalization to their `#:canonicalization' keyword
+argument, which defaults to 'relative. In this way, one might compile
+"../module/ice-9/boot-9.scm", but the path that gets residualized into
+the .go is "ice-9/boot-9.scm".
+
** New procedure, `make-promise'
`(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
+** New readline history functions
+
+The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
+write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
+History library functions.
+
** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
respectively.
+** Deprecate the old `scm-style-repl'
+
+The following bindings from boot-9 are now found in `(ice-9
+scm-style-repl)': `scm-style-repl', `error-catching-loop',
+`error-catching-repl', `bad-throw', `scm-repl-silent'
+`assert-repl-silence', `repl-print-unspecified',
+`assert-repl-print-unspecified', `scm-repl-verbose',
+`assert-repl-verbosity', `scm-repl-prompt', `set-repl-prompt!', `repl',
+`default-pre-unwind-handler', `handle-system-error',
+
+The following bindings have been deprecated, with no replacement:
+`pre-unwind-handler-dispatch'.
+
+The following bindings have been totally removed:
+`before-signal-stack'.
+
+Deprecated forwarding shims have been installed so that users that
+expect these bindings in the main namespace will still work, but receive
+a deprecation warning.
+
+** `set-batch-mode?!' replaced by `ensure-batch-mode!'
+
+"Batch mode" is a flag used to tell a program that it is not running
+interactively. One usually turns it on after a fork. It may not be
+turned off. `ensure-batch-mode!' deprecates the old `set-batch-mode?!',
+because it is a better interface, as it can only turn on batch mode, not
+turn it off.
+
+** Deprecate `save-stack', `the-last-stack'
+
+It used to be that the way to debug programs in Guile was to capture the
+stack at the time of error, drop back to the REPL, then debug that
+stack. But this approach didn't compose, was tricky to get right in the
+presence of threads, and was not very powerful.
+
+So `save-stack', `stack-saved?', and `the-last-stack' have been moved to
+`(ice-9 save-stack)', with deprecated bindings left in the root module.
+
+** `top-repl' has its own module
+
+The `top-repl' binding, called with Guile is run interactively, is now
+is its own module, `(ice-9 top-repl)'. A deprecated forwarding shim was
+left in the default environment.
+
+** `display-error' takes a frame
+
+The `display-error' / `scm_display_error' helper now takes a frame as an
+argument instead of a stack. Stacks are still supported in deprecated
+builds. Additionally, `display-error' will again source location
+information for the error.
+
+** No more `(ice-9 debug)'
+
+This module had some debugging helpers that are no longer applicable to
+the current debugging model. Importing this module will produce a
+deprecation warning. Users should contact bug-guile for support.
+
+** Remove obsolete debug-options
+
+Removed `breakpoints', `trace', `procnames', `indent', `frames',
+`maxdepth', and `debug' debug-options.
+
+** `backtrace' debug option on by default
+
+Given that Guile 2.0 can always give you a backtrace, backtraces are now
+on by default.
+
+** `turn-on-debugging' deprecated
+
+** Remove obsolete print-options
+
+The `source' and `closure-hook' print options are obsolete, and have
+been removed.
+
+** Remove obsolete read-options
+
+The "elisp-strings" and "elisp-vectors" read options were unused and
+obsolete, so they have been removed.
+
+** Remove eval-options and trap-options
+
+Eval-options and trap-options are obsolete with the new VM and
+evaluator.
+
+** Remove (ice-9 debugger) and (ice-9 debugging)
+
+See "Traps" and "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for information
+on their replacements.
+
+** Remove the GDS Emacs integration
+
+See "Using Guile in Emacs" in the manual, for info on how we think you
+should use Guile with Emacs.
+
+** Deprecated: `lazy-catch'
+
+`lazy-catch' was a form that captured the stack at the point of a
+`throw', but the dynamic state at the point of the `catch'. It was a bit
+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,
+and is no longer used.
+
+** Miscellaneous other deprecations
+
+`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
+manual.
+
+** Add `variable-unset!'
+
+See "Variables" in the manual, for more details.
+
+** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
+
* Changes to the C interface
** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
code easier and less error-prone.
+** 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.
+
+Users should continue to use locale encoding for user input, user
+output, or interacting with the C library.
+
+Use the Latin-1 functions for ASCII, and for literals in source code.
+
+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.
+
+`SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
+`SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
+available to C. Have fun!
+
** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
-** scm_primitive_load_path has additional argument, exception_on_error
+** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
+
+From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
+odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
+SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
+is gone.
+
+** Remove old evaluator closures
+
+There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
+structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
+procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
+newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
+details.
+
+** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
+
+It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
+allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
+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.
+
+Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
+primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
+rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
+procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
+arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
+special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
+
+This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
+them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
+debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
+example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
+mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
+
+However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
+`scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
+they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
+`SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
+`SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
+`SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
+
+Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
+`scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
+`scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
+and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
+instead.
+
+Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
+scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
+procedures.
+
+** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
+
+Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
+`scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
+`scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
+`SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
+`SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
+
+** Remove unused snarf macros
+
+`SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
+are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
+
+** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
+
+`scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
+`scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
+
+** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
+
+Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
+they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
+
+** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
+
+If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
+that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
+the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
+in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
+correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
+such changes.
+
+** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
+
+Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
+objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
+trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
+trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
+non-SMOB case.
+
+The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
+1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
+`apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
+deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
+
+** Removed support shlibs for SRFIs 1, 4, 13, 14, and 60
+
+Though these SRFI support libraries did expose API, they encoded a
+strange version string into their library names. That version was never
+programmatically exported, so there was no way people could use the
+libs.
+
+This was a fortunate oversight, as it allows us to remove the need for
+extra, needless shared libraries --- the C support code for SRFIs 4, 13,
+and 14 was already in core --- and allow us to incrementally return the
+SRFI implementation to Scheme.
** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
+** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
+
+It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
+full module lookup.
+
+** Inline vector allocation
+
+Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
+data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
+true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
+available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
+memory region.
+
+** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
+
+`scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
+constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
+
+** Stack refactor
+
+In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is
+no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has
+a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API
+considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is
+in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly.
+
+** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
+
+There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
+minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
+obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
+`scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
+from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
+were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
+
+** No future.
+
+Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
+shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
+part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
+better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
+
+** Deprecate trampolines
+
+There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
+so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
+procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
+optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
+Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
+
+** Deprecated `scm_badargsp'
+
+This function is unused in Guile, but was part of its API.
+
+** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
+
+The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
+efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
+Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
+like scm_is_null_or_nil.
+
+** Better integration of Lisp `nil'.
+
+`scm_is_boolean', `scm_is_false', and `scm_is_null' all return true now
+for Lisp's `nil'. This shouldn't affect any Scheme code at this point,
+but when we start to integrate more with Emacs, it is possible that we
+break code that assumes that, for example, `(not x)' implies that `x' is
+`eq?' to `#f'. This is not a common assumption. Refactoring affected
+code to rely on properties instead of identities will improve code
+correctness. See "Nil" in the manual, for more details.
+
+** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
+
+Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
+much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
+memory footprint.
+
** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
-** scm_array_p has one argument, not two
-
-Use of the second argument produced a deprecation warning, so it is
-unlikely that any code out there actually used this functionality.
-
* Changes to the distribution
** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
part of Guile).
+** AM_SILENT_RULES
+
+Guile's build is visually quieter, due to the use of Automake 1.11's
+AM_SILENT_RULES. Build as `make V=1' to see all of the output.
+
** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
+** Parallel installability fixes
+
+Guile now installs its header files to a effective-version-specific
+directory, and includes the effective version (e.g. 2.0) in the library
+name (e.g. libguile-2.0.so).
+
+This change should be transparent to users, who should detect Guile via
+the guile.m4 macro, or the guile-2.0.pc pkg-config file. It will allow
+parallel installs for multiple versions of Guile development
+environments.
+
+** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
+
+Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
+(e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
+be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
+directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensiondir
+guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
+
+** User Scheme code may be placed in a version-specific path
+
+Before, there was only one way to install user Scheme code to a
+version-specific Guile directory: install to Guile's own path,
+e.g. /usr/share/guile/2.0. The site directory,
+e.g. /usr/share/guile/site, was unversioned. This has been changed to
+add a version-specific site directory, e.g. /usr/share/guile/site/2.0,
+searched before the global site directory.
+
** New dependency: libgc
See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
+** New dependency: libffi
+
+See http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information.
+
\f
Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
+** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
\f
Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
HCoop / bpt / guile.git / blobdiff