* Changes to the distribution
+** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
+
** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
Seen libguile/__scm.h and gen-scmconfig.c for more information.
+Note too that nearly all public defines are now set to either 1 or 0
+rather than being set to 1 or left undefined. See gen-scmconfig.c and
+the GNU Coding Guidelines for the rationale. However, pre-existing
+defines that were not renamed were not changed. i.e. GUILE_DEBUG is
+still either 1 or undefined.
+
** The INSTALL file is now the generic automake installed one.
Guile specific instructions can be found in the README.
that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
with each micro release during a stable series.
-** There are two new thread implementation options: "null" and "coop-pthreads".
+** Thread implementation has changed.
When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
is always present, although you might not be able to create new
threads.
-The "coop-pthread" (or shorter: "copt") thread implementation will use
-portable POSIX threads but will restrict them so that only one thread
-can execute 'in Guile' at any one time. This option will give you the
-same basic behavior as the old "coop" option, but hopefully in a more
-portable way.
+When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
+you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
+threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
+"coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
+the GC. See the manual for details. [XXX - write this.]
+
+The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
+in which case "null" threads are used.
+
+** New module (ice-9 serialize):
+
+(serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when
+you don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but
+where you have some section(s) of code which you consider can run
+in parallel to other sections.
+
+They "flag" (with dynamic extent) sections of code to be of
+"serial" or "parallel" nature and have the single effect of
+preventing a serial section from being run in parallel with any
+serial section (including itself).
+
+Both serialize and parallelize can be nested. If so, the
+inner-most construct is in effect.
+
+NOTE 1: A serial section can run in parallel with a parallel
+section.
-The default is now "coop-pthread", unless your platform doesn't have
-pthreads, in which case "null" threads are used.
+NOTE 2: If a serial section S is "interrupted" by a parallel
+section P in the following manner: S = S1 P S2, S2 is not
+guaranteed to be resumed by the same thread that previously
+executed S1.
+
+WARNING: Spawning new threads within a serial section have
+undefined effects. It is OK, though, to spawn threads in unflagged
+sections of code where neither serialize or parallelize is in
+effect.
+
+A typical usage is when Guile is used as scripting language in some
+application doing heavy computations. If each thread is
+encapsulated with a serialize form, you can then put a parallelize
+form around the code performing the heavy computations (typically a
+C code primitive), enabling the computations to run in parallel
+while the scripting code runs single-threadedly.
** Guile now includes its own version of libltdl.
version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
to the distribution" above.
-** Futures
-
-Futures is a way of providing an alternative evaluation policy, very
-similar in principle to "promises". Like promises, futures allow the
-main process to continue instantly, but while promises postpone
-evaluation ("lazy" evaluation) until the value is requested, futures
-immediately starts evaluation in a parallel thread.
-
-Futures are good when you want to express that "I'll need the value of
-this computation sometime soon" and want to allow processing to go on
-in the background until that time arrives.
+** Futures: future, make-future, future-ref
-** New syntax: future FORM
-
-Begin evaluation of FORM in a parallel thread and return the future
-immediately. (Akin to 'delay'.)
-
-** New procedure: future-ref FUTURE
-
-Return the computed value of the future. Wait if the computation is
-not finished. (Akin to 'force'.)
+Futures are like promises, but begun immediately in a new thread. See
+the "Futures" section in the reference manual.
** New syntax: parallel FORM ...
of) argument(s) would consume too much system resources. On a
dual-CPU system, N = 4 would often be a good choice.
+** New function: n-for-each-par-map N S-PROC P-PROC ARGLIST ...
+
+Using N parallel processes, apply S-PROC in serial order to each
+result of applying P-PROC to each set of arguments in the argument
+lists ARGLIST ...
+
+Like a composition of 'for-each' and 'n-par-map', but allows S-PROC to
+start processing while the results of P-PROC are being produced.
+
** Fair mutexes and condition variables
Fair mutexes and condition variables have been added. The fairness
You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
-** Removed: substring-move-left!, substring-move-right!
-
-Use `substring-move!' instead.
-
** Deprecated: procedure->macro
Change your code to use either procedure->memoizing-macro or, probably better,
There is no replacement for undefine.
+** SRFI-1 delete equality argument order fixed.
+
+In the srfi-1 module delete and delete!, the order of the arguments to
+the "=" procedure now matches the SRFI-1 specification.
+
* Changes to the C interface
** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
scm_internal_select was provided by Guile. This function is now
always defined, and GUILE_ISELECT with it.
+** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
+
+This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
+function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
+
+** Deprecated definitions of error strings: scm_s_expression, scm_s_test,
+scm_s_body, scm_s_bindings, scm_s_variable, scm_s_clauses, scm_s_formals
+
+These error message strings were used to issue syntax error messages by
+guile's evaluator. It's unlikely that they have been used by user code.
+
+** Deprecated helper macros for evaluation and application: SCM_EVALIM2,
+SCM_EVALIM, SCM_XEVAL, SCM_XEVALCAR
+
+These macros were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's unlikely
+that they have been used by user code.
+
+** Deprecated macros for iloc handling: SCM_ILOC00, SCM_IDINC, SCM_IDSTMSK
+
+These macros were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's unlikely
+that they have been used by user code.
+
** Removed definitions: scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify,
scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify, scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify,
scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify, scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell,
SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL,
SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS,
*top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
-scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3, scm_eval2, SCM_SETAND_CAR,
-SCM_SETOR_CAR, SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP,
-SCM_GC8MARKP, SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR,
-scm_remember, scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object,
-root_module_lookup_closure, scm_sym_app, scm_sym_modules,
-module_prefix, make_modules_in_var, beautify_user_module_x_var,
-try_module_autoload_var, scm_module_full_name, scm_the_root_module,
-scm_make_module, scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module,
-scm_port, scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_port_rw_active,
-scm_close_all_ports_except, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_i_rstate,
-SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_STRING_UCHARS,
-SCM_STRING_CHARS, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_makstr, scm_makfromstr,
-scm_make_shared_substring, scm_tc7_substring, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP,
-SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP, scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
-sym_huh, scm_variable_set_name_hint, scm_builtin_variable,
-SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP, SCM_DEFVARIABLEP,
-scm_internal_with_fluids, scm_make_gsubr, scm_make_gsubr_with_generic,
-scm_create_hook, list*, SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3,
-SCM_LIST4, SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9,
-scm_listify, scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member,
-scm_end_of_file_key, scm_read_and_eval_x, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum,
-scm_adjbig, scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big,
-scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT, scm_subr_entry, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
-scm_make_subr_opt, scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_with_generic,
-setjmp_type, setjmp_type, scm_call_catching_errors,
-scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe, scm_strprint_obj,
-scm_read_0str, scm_eval_0str, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_SETCHARS,
+scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3, scm_eval2,
+root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP,
+scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring, scm_tc7_substring,
+sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP, SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig,
+scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big,
+scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT, SCM_SETCHARS,
SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_LENGTH_MAX,
-SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_ROCHARS,
-SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR, scm_strhash,
-scm_sym2vcell, scm_sym2ovcell_soft, scm_sym2ovcell,
-scm_intern_obarray_soft, scm_intern_obarray, scm_intern, scm_intern0,
-scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0, scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup,
-scm_symbol_value0, scm_string_to_obarray_symbol, scm_intern_symbol,
-scm_unintern_symbol, scm_symbol_binding, scm_symbol_interned_p,
-scm_symbol_bound_p, scm_symbol_set_x, scm_gentemp,
-scm_init_symbols_deprecated, s_vector_set_length_x,
+SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS,
+SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR, scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern,
+scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
+scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
-scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_OPDIRP, scm_fport, scm_option,
-SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT,
-SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT, scm_srcprops, scm_srcprops_chunk,
-scm_info_frame, scm_stack, scm_array, scm_array_dim,
-SCM_ARRAY_CONTIGUOUS, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_WTA,
-RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
-SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR,
-SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
-SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING,
-SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
+scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
+SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
+SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
+SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
+SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,