Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes. -*- text -*-
-Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
See the end for copying conditions.
Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
* Changes to the distribution
-** New modules (oop goops) etc
+** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
-The new modules
+stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
+the the-last-stack fluid for the debugger to inspect or in able to
+re-throw an error.
+
+** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
+
+This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
+that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
+to be named `and-let*', of course.
+
+On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
+(ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
+
+** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
(oop goops)
(oop goops describe)
(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.
+The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
+integrated into Guile.
Type
(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.
+See further in the GOOPS manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory,
+in info (goops.info) and texinfo formats.
+
+** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
+
+This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
+in the default environment:
+
+read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
+%read-line write-line
+
+For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
+default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
+
+(use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
+
+to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
+future.
+
+Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
+can be used for similar functionality.
+
+** New module (ice-9 match)
+
+This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher:
+
+(use-modules (ice-9 match))
+
+(match '(+ 1 2)
+ (('+ x) x)
+ (('+ x y) `(add ,x ,y))
+ (('- x y) `(sub ,x ,y))) => (add 1 2)
+
+See ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
+http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html for complete documentation.
+
+This module requires SLIB to be installed and available from Guile.
+
+** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
+
+This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
+underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
+The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
+caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
+
+This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
+or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
+
+** Documentation
+
+The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
+distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
+Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
+manuals.
+
+- The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
+ to using Guile.
+
+- The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
+ contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
+
+- The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
+ reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
+ Programming System.
+
+- The Revised^4 and Revised^5 Reports on the Algorithmic Language
+ Scheme (r4rs.texi and r5rs.texi).
+
+See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
+
+* Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
+
+** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
+
+Previously, you could for example write (cons 1 ()); now you need to
+be more explicit and write (cons 1 '()).
** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
* Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
+** The empty combination is no longer valid syntax.
+
+Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
+been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
+to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
+
+** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
+
+Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
+libraries to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
+`(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
+"foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
+load path of Guile.
+
+This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported.
+What you should do instead now is to write a small Scheme file that
+explicitly calls `dynamic-link' to load the shared library and
+`dynamic-call' to initialize it.
+
+The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
+places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
+
+For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
+
+ (define-module (foo bar))
+
+ (dynamic-call "foobar_init" (dynamic-link "libguile-foo-bar"))
+
+The file name passed to `dynamic-link' should not contain an
+extension. It will be provided automatically.
+
+** The module system has been made more disciplined.
+
+The function `eval' will now save and restore the current module
+around the evaluation of the specified expression. While this
+expression is evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right
+module, which is the module specified as the second argument to
+`eval'.
+
+A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularily
+useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
+designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
+call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
+where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
+function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
+that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
+function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
+when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
+one eval to the next.
+
+Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
+the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
+Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
+etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
+subforms are at the top-level as well.
+
+To prevent strange behaviour, the forms `define-module',
+`use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
+work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
+`defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
+behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
+used in a lexical environment.
+
** The semantics of guardians have changed.
The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
** Escape procedures created by call-with-current-continuation now
accept any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
+** New function `call-with-deprecation'
+
+Call a thunk, displaying a deprecation message at the first call:
+
+ (define (id x)
+ (call-with-deprecation "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead."
+ (lambda ()
+ (identity x))))
+
+ guile> (id 1)
+ ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
+ 1
+ guile> (id 1)
+ 1
+
** New function `make-object-property'
This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
+** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
+
+ Read characters from an fport or file descriptor into a string
+ STR. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
+ large strings. It will:
+
+ * attempt to fill the entire string, unless the START and/or
+ END arguments are supplied. i.e., START defaults to 0 and
+ END defaults to `(string-length str)'
+
+ * use the current input port if PORT_OR_FDES is not supplied.
+
+ * read any characters that are currently available, without
+ waiting for the rest (short reads are possible).
+
+ * wait for as long as it needs to for the first character to
+ become available, unless the port is in non-blocking mode
+
+ * return `#f' if end-of-file is encountered before reading any
+ characters, otherwise return the number of characters read.
+
+ * return 0 if the port is in non-blocking mode and no characters
+ are immediately available.
+
+ * return 0 if the request is for 0 bytes, with no end-of-file
+ check
+
+** New function: object->string OBJ
+
+Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
+
** New function: port? X
Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
`(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
+** New function: file-port?
+
+Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
+
** New function: port-for-each proc
-Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The
-return value is unspecified.
+ Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The
+ return value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied
+ exactly once to every port that exists in the system at the time
+ PORT-FOR-EACH is invoked. Changes to the port table while
+ PORT-FOR-EACH is running have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is
+ concerned.
** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
-to move away ports which are using NEWFD\n". The return value is
+to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
unspecified.
** New function: close-fdes fd
closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
unspecified.
-** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except. This was intended for closing
-ports in a child process after a fork, but it has the undesirable side
-effect of flushing buffers. port-for-each is more flexible.
+** New function: crypt password salt
+
+Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
+algorithm.
+
+** New function: chroot path
+
+Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
+
+** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
+
+Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
+id, respectively.
+
+** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
+
+Get or set the priority of the running process.
+
+** New function: getpass prompt
+
+Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
+disabling echoing.
+
+** New function: flock file operation
+
+Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
+
+** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
+
+Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
+on.
+
+** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
+
+mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
+new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
+is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
+end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
+of the temporary file.
+
+** New function: open-input-string string
+
+Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
+`string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
+`get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
+
+** New function: open-output-string
+
+Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
+The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
+
+** New function: get-output-string
+
+Return the contents of an output string port.
+
+** New function: identity
+
+Return the argument.
+
+** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
+ are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
+
+** New function: inet-pton family address
+
+ Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note
+ that unlike the C version of this function, the result is an
+ integer with normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET'
+ or `AF_INET6'. e.g.,
+ (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
+ (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
+
+** New function: inet-ntop family address
+
+ Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note
+ that unlike the C version of this function, the input is an
+ integer with normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET'
+ or `AF_INET6'. e.g.,
+ (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
+ (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
+ ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
+
+** Deprecated: id
+
+Use `identity' instead.
+
+** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
+
+This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
+but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
+port-for-each is more flexible.
** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
-** Removed constants: bignum-radix
+** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
+
+** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
+
+The new method syntax is now mandatory:
+
+(define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
+(define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
+
+ ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
+ REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
+
+If you have old code using the old syntax, import
+(oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
+
+ (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
* Changes to the gh_ interface
* Changes to the scm_ interface
+** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
+
+Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
+Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
+than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
+
+Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
+
+** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
+
+Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
+port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
+write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
+return value.
+
+Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
+
** New function: scm_init_guile ()
In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
+** New function: scm_allocate_string
+
+This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
+
+** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
+
+Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
+
** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
+** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
+
+For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
+
** 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_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
-SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC
+SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
+SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
+SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
+SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
+SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
+Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
+Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
+Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
+Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
+Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
+Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
+Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
** Removed function: scm_struct_init
This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
+** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
+
+Use scm_object_to_string instead.
+
+** Deprecated function: scm_wta
+
+Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
+instead.
+
\f
Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
objects.
+** New module (ice-9 time)
+
+Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
+
+** New module (ice-9 history)
+
+Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
+
* Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
** New command line option --debug