Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
\f
+Changes since Guile 1.4:
+
+* Changes to the distribution
+
+* Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
+
+** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
+
+Example:
+
+(define m (make-module 1021 (list (resolve-interface '(ice-9 safe-r5rs)))))
+;;; 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 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)
+ ...)
+
+* Changes to the gh_ interface
+
+* Changes to the scm_ interface
+
+\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
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
SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
+** 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.
+** 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
+
+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
releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
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
HCoop / bpt / guile.git / blobdiff