Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes. -*- text -*-
-Copyright (C) 1996, 1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
See the end for copying conditions.
Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
\f
-Changes since Guile 1.2:
+Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
* Changes to the distribution
the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
-For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline library
-installed on your system.
+For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
+library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
+available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
+any GNU mirror site.
See also ADD-HISTORY function.
command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
+** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
+
+This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
+for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
+scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
+#\newline.
+
+(Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
+from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
+terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
+
** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
-** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
+** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
+
+Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
+
+Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
+
+This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
+and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
+more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
+use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
+conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
+uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
+both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
+change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
+
+
+** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
+
+*** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
+
+Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
+the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
+following symbols:
+
+ value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
+ shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
+ full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
+
+For example:
+
+ guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
+ debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
+ debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
+ the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
+ the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
+ the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
+ the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
+ the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
+ guile>
+
+** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
+
+Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
+top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
+specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
+
+*** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
+
+*** New function: (macro? OBJ)
+True iff OBJ is a macro object.
+
+*** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
+Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
+macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
+
+*** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
+Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
+values are:
+
+ The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
+ The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
+ The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
+ The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
+
+*** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
+Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
+procedure-name.
+
+*** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
+Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
+
+*** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
+
+Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
+MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
+form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
+top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
+resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
+module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
+is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
+interpreter.
+
+*** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
properly continue the print chain.
We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
-explicitely passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
+explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
variable to any non-empty value.
+** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
+normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
+
* Changes to the gh_ interface
** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
+** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
+
+Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
+have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
+their new names and arguments:
+
+scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
+scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
+scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
+scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
+
+
** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
strings.
-** All genio functions changed names and interfaces; new functions are
-scm_putc, scm_puts, scm_lfwrite, scm_getc, scm_ungetc, and
-scm_do_read_line.
-
** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
HCoop / bpt / guile.git / blobdiff