(During the 1.9 series, we will keep an incremental NEWS for the latest
prerelease, and a full NEWS corresponding to 1.8 -> 2.0.)
-Changes in 1.9.7 (since the 1.9.6 prerelease):
-
-** Complete support for version information in Guile's `module' form
-
-Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. They may be loaded by
-version as well. See "R6RS Version References", "General Information
-about Modules", "Using Guile Modules", and "Creating Guile Modules" in
-the manual for more information.
-
-** Support for renaming bindings on module export
-
-Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
-export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
-should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
-for more information.
-
-** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
-
-The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
-toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
-"Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
-
-** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
-
-The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
-profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
-time. See `,help profile' for more information.
-
-Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
-during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
-
-** New debugger
-
-By default, if an exception is raised at the REPL and not caught by user
-code, Guile will drop the user into a debugger. The user may request a
-backtrace, inspect frames, or continue raising the exception. Full
-documentation is available from within the debugger.
-
-** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
-
-`(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
-will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
-output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
-more details.
-
-There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
-print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
-documentation for more details.
-
-** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
-
-Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
-primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
-rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
-procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
-arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
-special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
-
-This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
-them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
-debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
-example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
-mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
-
-However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
-`scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
-they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
-`SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
-`SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
-`SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
-
-Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
-`scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
-`scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
-and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
-instead.
-
-Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
-scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
-procedures.
-
-** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
-
-Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
-have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
-or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
-else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
-APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
-addressed by element and not by byte.
-
-So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
-numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
-endianness, as one would expect.
-
-Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
-also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
-were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
-u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
-same to Guile.
-
-In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
-input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
-
-Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
-inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
-
-See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
-
-** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
-
-Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
-are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
-`any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
-
-Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
-import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
-
-See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
-
-** Unicode: String normalization, general categories, title case
-
-Guile now exports the Unicode string normalization functions
-`string-normalize-nfc', `string-normalize-nfd', `string-normalize-nfkc',
-and `string-normalize-nfkd'. See "String Comparison" in the manual for
-more information. See "Characters" for information on the new
-`char-general-category', and "Character Case Mapping" for
-`char-titlecase', `char-locale-titlecase', and
-`string-locale-titlecase'.
-
-** Faster access to the free variables of a closure
-
-Guile's old garbage collector limited the size of Scheme objects to be 2
-or 4 words. Now with the BDW collector, Guile can allocate
-variable-sized objects, allowing storage of the free variables of a
-closure inline to the closure itself.
-
-** New primitive `getsid'
-
-Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
-
-** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
-
-Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
-objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
-trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
-trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
-non-SMOB case.
-
-The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
-1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
-`apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
-deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
-
-** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
-
-Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
-`scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
-`scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
-`SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
-`SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
-
-** String encoding errors throw to `encoding-error' instead of `misc-error'
-
-** Keyword argument errors uniformly throw to `keyword-argument-error'
-
-** Remove unused snarf macros
-
-`SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
-are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
-
-** Add foreign value wrapper
-
-Guile now has a datatype for aliasing "foreign" values, such as native
-long values. This should be useful for making a proper foreign function
-interface. Interested hackers should see libguile/foreign.h.
-
-** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
-
-`scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
-`scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
-
-** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
-
-When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
-version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
-allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
-installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
-in the common case.
-
-** Compile-time warning: -Wunused-toplevel
-
-Guile can warn about potentially unused top-level (global)
-variables. Pass the -Wunused-toplevel on the `guile-tools compile'
-command line, or add
-`#:warnings '(unused-toplevel)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
-invocation.
-
-** New reader options: `square-brackets' and `r6rs-hex-escapes'
-
-The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
-`square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
-parenthesis. This option is on by default.
-
-If this causes problems with your code, make sure to report it to
-bug-guile@gnu.org so we can change the default.
-
-When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
-will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS.
+Changes in 1.9.8 (since the 1.9.7 prerelease):
** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes
HCoop / bpt / guile.git / commitdiff