Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
\f
+Changes since Guile 1.4:
+
+* Changes to the distribution
+
+** New modules (oop goops) etc
+
+The new modules
+
+ (oop goops)
+ (oop goops describe)
+ (oop goops save)
+ (oop goops active-slot)
+ (oop goops composite-slot)
+
+plus some GOOPS utility modules have been added.
+
+* Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
+
+** GOOPS has been merged into Guile
+
+The Guile Object Oriented Programming System has been integrated into
+Guile.
+
+Type
+
+ (use-modules (oop goops))
+
+access GOOPS bindings.
+
+We're now ready to try some basic GOOPS functionality.
+
+Generic functions
+
+ (define-method (+ (x <string>) (y <string>))
+ (string-append x y))
+
+ (+ 1 2) --> 3
+ (+ "abc" "de") --> "abcde"
+
+User-defined types
+
+ (define-class <2D-vector> ()
+ (x #:init-value 0 #:accessor x-component #:init-keyword #:x)
+ (y #:init-value 0 #:accessor y-component #:init-keyword #:y))
+
+ (define-method write ((obj <2D-vector>) port)
+ (display (format #f "<~S, ~S>" (x-component obj) (y-component obj))
+ port))
+
+ (define v (make <2D-vector> #:x 3 #:y 4))
+ v --> <3, 4>
+
+ (define-method + ((x <2D-vector>) (y <2D-vector>))
+ (make <2D-vector>
+ #:x (+ (x-component x) (x-component y))
+ #:y (+ (y-component x) (y-component y))))
+
+ (+ v v) --> <6, 8>
+
+Asking for the type of an object
+
+ (class-of v) --> #<<class> <2D-vector> 40241ac0>
+ <2D-vector> --> #<<class> <2D-vector> 40241ac0>
+ (class-of 1) --> #<<class> <integer> 401b2a98>
+ <integer> --> #<<class> <integer> 401b2a98>
+
+ (is-a? v <2D-vector>) --> #t
+
+See further in the GOOPS tutorial available in the guile-doc
+distribution in info (goops.info) and texinfo formats.
+
+** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
+
+Example:
+
+(use-modules (ice-9 safe))
+(define m (make-safe-module))
+;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
+(eval-in-module '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
+(eval-in-module 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
+
+* Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
+
+** New function `make-object-property'
+
+This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
+to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
+
+ (set! (P obj) val)
+
+where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
+a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
+
+ (P obj)
+
+This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
+source properties eventually.
+
+** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
+
+Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
+#:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
+:optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
+
+The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
+will be removed in the next release.
+
+** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
+
+`eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
+The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
+
+ (scheme-report-environment 5)
+ (null-environment 5)
+ (interaction-environment)
+
+or
+
+ any module.
+
+** New define-module option: pure
+
+Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
+module.
+
+Example:
+
+(define-module (totally-empty-module)
+ :pure)
+
+** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
+
+Export names NAME1 ...
+
+This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
+a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
+
+Example:
+
+(define-module (foo)
+ :pure
+ :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
+ :export (bar))
+
+;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
+
+(define (bar)
+ ...)
+
+** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
+
+Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
+
+Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
+internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
+
+** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
+
+The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
+Guile.
+
+** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
+
+Instead, use scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
+
+* Changes to the gh_ interface
+
+* Changes to the scm_ interface
+
+** New function: scm_init_guile ()
+
+In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
+after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
+
+** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
+ scm_primitive_property_ref
+ scm_primitive_property_set_x
+ scm_primitive_property_del_x
+
+These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
+See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
+
+** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
+
+This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
+amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
+calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
+unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
+
+** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
+
+Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
+now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
+running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
+collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
+may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
+of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
+
+** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
+SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
+SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
+
+Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
+
+** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
+SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
+SCM_ARRAY_MEM
+
+Use these instead of SCM_CHARS or SCM_VELTS.
+
+** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
+
+** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
+
+Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
+
+** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
+SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
+SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
+SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
+SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
+SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
+SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
+SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR
+
+Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
+Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
+Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
+Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
+Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
+Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
+Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
+Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
+Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
+
+** Removed function: scm_struct_init
+
+** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
+
+Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
+
+** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
+
+Use scm_string_hash instead.
+
+** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
+
+Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
+
+** scm_gensym has changed prototype
+
+scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
+
+** New function: scm_gentemp (SCM prefix, SCM obarray)
+
+The builtin `gentemp' has now become a primitive.
+
+** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
+scm_tc7_lvector
+
+There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
+The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
+
+\f
Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
* Changes to the distribution
space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
-I options for the root build and root source directory.
+** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
+
+** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
+
+** New module (ice-9 documentation)
+
+Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
+objects.
+
* Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
+** New command line option --debug
+
+Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
+
+This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
+
+** New help facility
+
+Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
+ (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
+ (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
+ (help) gives this text
+
+`help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
+`apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
+
+Examples: (help help)
+ (help cons)
+ (help "output-string")
+
+** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
+
** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
(The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
The second enables backtraces.)
+** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
+
+The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
+was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
+substantially faster than before.
+
** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
+** Improvements to garbage collector
+
+Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
+determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
+in the old GC.
+
+1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
+ (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
+ more and more memory for certain programs.)
+
+2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
+ Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
+
+3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
+ were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
+
+4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
+ row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
+ in order not to need further allocation.)
+
+All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
+efficient.
+
+The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
+allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
+function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
+then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
+
+** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
+
+GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
+ (default = 2097000)
+
+Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
+
+GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
+ (default = 360000)
+
+GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
+ GC in percent of total heap size
+ (default = 40)
+
+Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
+(used for real numbers and misc other objects):
+
+GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
+
+(See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
+ section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
+
+** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
+
+This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
+with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
+
+** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
+
+*** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
+don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
+next release.
+
+*** Signals
+are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
+I/O, and in scm_equalp.
+
+*** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
+
* Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
+** Deprecated: list*
+
+The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
+
+** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
+
+Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
+returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
+
+Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
+is returned as result.
+
+This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
+
+** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
+
+** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
+
+Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
+procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
+faster.
+
+Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
+
+** module-name now returns full names of modules
+
+Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
+`(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
+
+* Changes to the gh_ interface
+
+** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
+
+Use gh_bool2scm instead.
+
* Changes to the scm_ interface
** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
Thanks to Greg Badros!
-** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: GUILE_PROC/GUILE_PROC1
+** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
-Now Guile primitives are defined using the GUILE_PROC/GUILE_PROC1 macros
-and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
+Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
+macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
+However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
+guile.
+
** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
-** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK, SCM_UNPACK_CAR
+** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
Compose/decompose an SCM value.
-The SCM type is now defined as void * on most architectures. This
-makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when SCM
-values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM
-type should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
+The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
+long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
+options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
+SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
+should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
-SCM_UNPACK_CAR (X) is defined as SCM_UNPACK (SCM_CAR (X))
+** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
+Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
+
+You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
+
+** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
+SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
+SCM_NVECTORP
+
+These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
-** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP
+** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
+scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
+SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
-These macros will be removed in next release of Guile.
+Further, it is recommended not to rely on implementation details for guile's
+current implementation of bignums. It is planned to replace this
+implementation with gmp in the future.
** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
of the ptob.
+** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
+
+These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
+
** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
removed in a future version.
the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
modules.
+** Way for application to customize GC parameters
+
+The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
+allocation parameters
+
+ GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
+ GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
+ GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
+
+by setting
+
+ scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
+ scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
+ scm_default_max_segment_size
+
+respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
+
+(See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
+"Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
+
+** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
+
+This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
+object and count on the object being protected until
+scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
+
+The functions also have better time complexity.
+
+Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
+that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
+protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
+than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
+are no longer needed.
+
+** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
+
+Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
+more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
+the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
+and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
+
+** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
+
+** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
+
+** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
+
+There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
+deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
+standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
+until this issue has been settled.
+
+** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
+
+** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
+
+(This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
+ until now.)
+
+** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
+
* Changes to system call interfaces:
** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
-** There is now a fourth (optional) argument to make-vtable-vtable and
- make-struct when constructing new types (vtables). This argument
- initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
+** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
+ (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
+ This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
HCoop / bpt / guile.git / blobdiff