1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes. -*- text -*-
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Changes since Guile 1.4:
9 * Changes to the distribution
11 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
13 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
14 the the-last-stack fluid for the debugger to inspect or in able to
17 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
19 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
20 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
21 to be named `and-let*', of course.
23 On systems that support it, there is also a compatability module named
24 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
26 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
31 (oop goops active-slot)
32 (oop goops composite-slot)
34 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
35 integrated into Guile.
39 (use-modules (oop goops))
41 access GOOPS bindings.
43 We're now ready to try some basic GOOPS functionality.
47 (define-method (+ (x <string>) (y <string>))
51 (+ "abc" "de") --> "abcde"
55 (define-class <2D-vector> ()
56 (x #:init-value 0 #:accessor x-component #:init-keyword #:x)
57 (y #:init-value 0 #:accessor y-component #:init-keyword #:y))
59 (define-method write ((obj <2D-vector>) port)
60 (display (format #f "<~S, ~S>" (x-component obj) (y-component obj))
63 (define v (make <2D-vector> #:x 3 #:y 4))
66 (define-method + ((x <2D-vector>) (y <2D-vector>))
68 #:x (+ (x-component x) (x-component y))
69 #:y (+ (y-component x) (y-component y))))
73 Asking for the type of an object
75 (class-of v) --> #<<class> <2D-vector> 40241ac0>
76 <2D-vector> --> #<<class> <2D-vector> 40241ac0>
77 (class-of 1) --> #<<class> <integer> 401b2a98>
78 <integer> --> #<<class> <integer> 401b2a98>
80 (is-a? v <2D-vector>) --> #t
82 See further in the GOOPS tutorial available in the guile-doc
83 distribution in info (goops.info) and texinfo formats.
85 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
87 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
88 in the default environment:
90 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
93 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
94 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
96 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
98 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
101 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
102 can be used for similar functionality.
104 ** New module (ice-9 match)
106 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher:
108 (use-modules (ice-9 match))
112 (('+ x y) `(add ,x ,y))
113 (('- x y) `(sub ,x ,y))) => (add 1 2)
115 See ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
116 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html for complete documentation.
118 This module requires SLIB to be installed and available from Guile.
120 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
122 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
124 Previously, you could for example write (cons 1 ()); now you need to
125 be more explicit and write (cons 1 '()).
127 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
131 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
132 (define m (make-safe-module))
133 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
134 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
135 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
137 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
139 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
141 The function `eval' will now save and restore the current module
142 around the evaluation of the specified expression. While this
143 expression is evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right
144 module, which is the module specified as the second argument to
147 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularily
148 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
149 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
150 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
151 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
152 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
153 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
154 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
155 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
156 one eval to the next.
158 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
159 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
160 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
161 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
162 subforms are at the top-level as well.
164 To prevent strange behaviour, the forms `define-module',
165 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
166 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
167 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
168 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
169 used in a lexical environment.
171 ** `port-for-each' makes an additional guarantee.
173 From the docstring: @var{proc} is applied exactly once to every port
174 that exists in the system at the time @var{port-for-each} is invoked.
175 Changes to the port table while @var{port-for-each} is running have no
176 effect as far as @var{port-for-each} is concerned.
178 This guarantee is important to make (ice-9 popen) work reliable.
180 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
182 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
183 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
184 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
186 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
188 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
189 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
190 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
192 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
193 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
194 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
195 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
197 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
199 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
200 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
202 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
203 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
204 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
205 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
206 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
209 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
210 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
211 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
212 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
213 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
214 successful and #f if it wasn't.
216 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
217 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
218 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
219 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
220 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
222 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
223 objects are usually permanent.
225 ** Escape procedures created by call-with-current-continuation now
226 accept any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
228 ** New function `make-object-property'
230 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
231 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
235 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
236 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
240 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
241 source properties eventually.
243 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
245 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
246 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
247 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
249 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
250 will be removed in the next release.
252 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
254 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
255 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
257 (scheme-report-environment 5)
259 (interaction-environment)
265 ** New define-module option: pure
267 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
272 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
275 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
277 Export names NAME1 ...
279 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
280 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
286 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
289 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
294 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
296 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
298 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
299 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
301 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
303 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
306 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
308 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
310 ** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
312 Read characters from an fport or file descriptor into a string
313 STR. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
314 large strings. It will:
316 * attempt to fill the entire string, unless the START and/or
317 END arguments are supplied. i.e., START defaults to 0 and
318 END defaults to `(string-length str)'
320 * use the current input port if PORT_OR_FDES is not supplied.
322 * read any characters that are currently available, without
323 waiting for the rest (short reads are possible).
325 * wait for as long as it needs to for the first character to
326 become available, unless the port is in non-blocking mode
328 * return `#f' if end-of-file is encountered before reading any
329 characters, otherwise return the number of characters read.
331 * return 0 if the port is in non-blocking mode and no characters
332 are immediately available.
334 * return 0 if the request is for 0 bytes, with no end-of-file
337 ** New function: port? X
339 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
340 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
342 ** New function: file-port?
344 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
346 ** New function: port-for-each proc
348 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The
349 return value is unspecified.
351 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
353 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
354 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
355 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
356 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
357 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
360 ** New function: close-fdes fd
362 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
363 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
364 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
365 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
368 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except. This was intended for closing
369 ports in a child process after a fork, but it has the undesirable side
370 effect of flushing buffers. port-for-each is more flexible.
372 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
373 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
374 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
376 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
378 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
380 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
382 * Changes to the gh_ interface
384 * Changes to the scm_ interface
386 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
388 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
389 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
390 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
392 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
394 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
396 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
397 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
398 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
401 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
403 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
405 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
406 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
408 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
410 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
411 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
412 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
413 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
415 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
416 scm_primitive_property_ref
417 scm_primitive_property_set_x
418 scm_primitive_property_del_x
420 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
421 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
423 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
425 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
426 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
427 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
428 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
430 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
432 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
433 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
434 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
435 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
436 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
437 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
438 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
440 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
441 scm_remember_upto_here
443 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
445 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
447 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
448 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
450 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
452 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
453 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
454 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
455 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
456 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
457 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
459 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
461 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
463 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
464 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
465 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
467 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
469 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
470 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
471 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
473 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
475 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
476 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
479 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
482 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
483 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
486 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
488 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
490 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
492 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
494 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
496 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
498 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
499 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
500 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
501 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
502 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
503 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
504 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
505 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
506 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
507 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
508 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
509 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR
511 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
512 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
513 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
514 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
515 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
516 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
517 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
518 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
519 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
520 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
521 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
522 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
523 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
524 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
525 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
526 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
527 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
528 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
529 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
530 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
531 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
532 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
533 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
535 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
537 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
539 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
540 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
542 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
544 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
546 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
548 Use scm_string_hash instead.
550 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
552 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
554 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
556 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
558 ** New function: scm_gentemp (SCM prefix, SCM obarray)
560 The builtin `gentemp' has now become a primitive.
562 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
565 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
566 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
568 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
570 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
572 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
574 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
577 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
579 * Changes to the distribution
581 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
583 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
584 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
585 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
586 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
587 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
588 obtain these programs.
589 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
590 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
592 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
593 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
594 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
595 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
596 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
598 However, this approach means that minor differences between
599 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
600 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
601 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
605 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
608 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
609 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
610 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
611 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
613 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
615 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
617 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
618 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
620 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
621 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
623 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
624 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
626 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
627 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
628 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
629 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
631 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
633 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
637 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
638 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
640 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
642 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
643 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
645 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
646 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
647 number of objects of that kind.
649 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
651 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
652 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
653 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
654 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
655 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
657 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
659 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
661 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
663 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
666 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
668 ** New command line option --debug
670 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
672 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
676 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
677 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
678 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
679 (help) gives this text
681 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
682 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
684 Examples: (help help)
686 (help "output-string")
688 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
690 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
692 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
693 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
696 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
697 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
698 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
701 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
702 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
703 use absolute filenames when possible.
705 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
706 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
707 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
710 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
712 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
713 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
714 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
715 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
717 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
719 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
721 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
722 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
723 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
725 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
726 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
727 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
729 (read-enable 'positions)
730 (debug-enable 'debug)
732 ** Backtraces in scripts
734 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
738 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
740 at the top of the script.
742 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
743 The second enables backtraces.)
745 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
747 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
748 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
749 substantially faster than before.
751 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
752 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
754 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
755 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
757 ** gc-thunk is deprecated
759 gc-thunk will be removed in next release of Guile. It has been
760 replaced by after-gc-hook.
762 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
764 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
765 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
766 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
768 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
769 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
770 when this hook is run in the future.
772 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
773 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
775 ** Improvements to garbage collector
777 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
778 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
781 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
782 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
783 more and more memory for certain programs.)
785 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
786 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
788 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
789 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
791 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
792 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
793 in order not to need further allocation.)
795 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
798 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
799 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
800 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
801 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
803 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
805 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
808 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
810 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
813 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
814 GC in percent of total heap size
817 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
818 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
820 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
822 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
823 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
825 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
827 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
828 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
830 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
832 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
833 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
837 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
838 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
840 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
842 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
844 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
846 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
848 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
850 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
851 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
853 (simple-format port message . args)
854 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
855 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
856 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
857 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
858 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
859 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
860 Does not add a trailing newline."
862 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
864 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
865 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
867 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
868 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
872 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
874 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
876 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
877 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
879 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
880 is returned as result.
882 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
884 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
886 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
888 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
889 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
892 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
894 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
896 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
897 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
899 * Changes to the gh_ interface
901 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
903 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
905 * Changes to the scm_ interface
907 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
909 Thanks to Greg Badros!
911 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
913 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
914 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
915 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
917 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
920 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
922 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
923 the readability of argument checking.
925 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
927 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
929 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
931 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
932 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
933 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
934 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
935 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
936 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
937 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
939 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
941 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
943 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
944 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
946 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
948 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
949 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
952 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
954 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
955 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
956 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
958 Further, it is recommended not to rely on implementation details for guile's
959 current implementation of bignums. It is planned to replace this
960 implementation with gmp in the future.
962 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
963 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
964 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
966 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
967 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
968 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
969 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
970 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
971 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
972 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
974 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
975 scm_end_input (object);
976 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
977 ptob->flush (object);
979 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
980 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
983 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
985 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
987 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
988 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
989 removed in a future version.
991 ** The format of error message strings has changed
993 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
994 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
995 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
996 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
998 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
999 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
1001 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
1004 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
1006 in your configure.in.
1008 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
1013 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
1019 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
1021 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
1025 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
1026 (define make-message string-append)
1028 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
1030 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
1034 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
1039 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
1043 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
1045 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
1046 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
1048 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
1050 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
1051 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
1052 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
1053 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
1054 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
1055 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
1057 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
1058 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
1059 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
1061 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
1062 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
1063 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
1066 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
1067 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
1068 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
1069 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
1070 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
1072 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
1073 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
1074 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
1075 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
1076 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
1077 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
1078 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
1080 Destructors are not yet implemented.
1082 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
1083 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
1084 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
1086 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
1087 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
1088 KEY in the calling thread.
1090 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
1091 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
1092 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
1093 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
1094 associated with the key.
1096 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
1098 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
1099 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
1101 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
1103 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
1104 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
1105 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
1107 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
1109 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
1110 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
1112 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
1114 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
1116 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
1117 returned is undefined.
1119 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
1120 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
1121 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
1123 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
1124 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
1125 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
1127 ** New C level GC hooks
1129 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
1131 scm_before_gc_c_hook
1134 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
1135 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
1136 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
1138 scm_before_mark_c_hook
1139 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
1140 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
1142 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
1143 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
1146 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
1148 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
1149 allocation parameters
1151 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
1152 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
1153 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
1157 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
1158 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
1159 scm_default_max_segment_size
1161 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
1163 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
1164 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
1166 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
1168 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
1169 object and count on the object being protected until
1170 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
1172 The functions also have better time complexity.
1174 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
1175 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
1176 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
1177 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
1178 are no longer needed.
1180 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
1182 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
1183 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
1184 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
1185 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
1187 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
1189 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
1191 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
1193 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
1194 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
1195 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
1196 until this issue has been settled.
1198 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
1200 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
1202 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
1205 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
1207 * Changes to system call interfaces:
1209 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
1210 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
1211 descriptors were checked.
1213 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
1214 atomically written to a pipe.
1216 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
1217 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
1218 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
1219 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
1220 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
1221 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
1222 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
1225 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
1226 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
1227 is changed without calling tzset.
1229 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
1231 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
1232 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
1233 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
1235 (define write-network-long
1236 (lambda (value port)
1237 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
1238 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
1239 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
1241 (define read-network-long
1243 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
1244 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
1245 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
1247 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
1248 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
1250 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
1251 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
1252 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
1253 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
1255 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
1256 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
1257 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
1258 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
1262 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
1264 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1268 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
1269 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
1270 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
1276 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
1277 for a description of available commands.
1279 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
1280 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
1281 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
1283 (debug-enable 'backwards)
1285 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
1286 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
1288 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
1290 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
1292 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
1293 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
1294 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
1295 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
1296 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
1297 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
1300 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
1302 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
1303 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
1304 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
1305 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
1307 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
1308 the file and should not be affected by this change.
1310 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
1312 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1314 ** Readline support has changed again.
1316 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
1317 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
1318 to activate readline is now
1320 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
1323 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
1325 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
1326 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
1327 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
1330 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
1331 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
1332 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
1335 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
1336 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
1337 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
1338 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
1339 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
1340 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
1342 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
1343 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
1345 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
1347 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
1348 object it receives is the same string passed to
1349 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
1350 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
1351 string, not the suffix.
1353 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
1354 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
1355 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
1357 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
1359 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
1360 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
1361 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
1362 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
1365 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
1367 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
1369 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
1370 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
1371 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
1372 appear from left to right.
1374 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
1377 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
1379 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
1380 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
1382 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
1386 *** New function: hook? OBJ
1388 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
1390 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
1392 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
1393 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
1394 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
1396 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
1398 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
1400 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
1402 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
1405 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
1407 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
1408 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
1409 mentioning it here anyway.
1411 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
1413 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
1414 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
1415 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
1416 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
1419 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
1421 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
1423 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
1425 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
1426 otherwise return #f.
1428 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
1430 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
1431 returned by `opendir'.
1433 ** New function: using-readline?
1435 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
1437 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
1439 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
1440 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
1442 * Changes to the scm_ interface
1444 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
1446 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
1447 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
1448 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
1450 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
1452 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
1453 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
1455 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
1457 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
1458 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
1459 documentation slots are not yet used.
1461 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
1463 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
1464 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
1465 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
1470 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
1471 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
1472 (string-append x y))
1474 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
1475 can also be used for concatenating strings.
1477 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
1478 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
1479 be made in a clean way.]
1481 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
1483 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
1485 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
1487 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
1488 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
1490 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1492 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
1494 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
1496 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
1498 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
1499 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
1500 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
1501 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
1504 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1506 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
1508 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
1510 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
1512 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
1513 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
1515 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1517 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
1519 Evaluates the body of a special form.
1521 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
1523 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
1524 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
1525 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
1526 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
1527 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
1528 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
1530 This should not make any difference for most users.
1532 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
1534 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
1535 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
1537 *** New functions for applying generic functions
1539 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
1540 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
1541 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
1542 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
1543 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
1545 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
1547 It is now replaced by:
1549 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
1551 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
1552 binds a variable named NAME to it.
1554 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
1556 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
1557 This might change when we get the new module system.
1559 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
1563 Changes since Guile 1.3:
1565 * Changes to mailing lists
1567 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
1569 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
1572 * Changes to the distribution
1574 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
1576 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
1577 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
1578 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
1579 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
1580 you explicitly specify it.
1582 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
1583 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
1584 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
1585 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
1586 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
1589 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
1590 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
1591 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
1592 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
1594 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
1595 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
1596 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
1599 You can activate the readline support by issuing
1601 (use-modules (readline-activator))
1604 from your ".guile" file, for example.
1606 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1608 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
1609 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
1610 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
1611 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
1613 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
1614 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
1617 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1619 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
1620 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
1621 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
1622 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
1623 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
1624 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
1625 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
1626 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
1638 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
1639 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
1640 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
1641 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
1642 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
1647 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
1648 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
1656 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
1661 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
1662 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
1665 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
1666 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
1667 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
1668 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
1670 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
1672 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
1674 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
1675 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
1677 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
1679 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
1681 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
1682 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
1684 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
1687 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
1689 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
1691 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
1693 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
1695 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
1697 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
1699 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
1700 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
1701 when the hook was created.
1703 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
1704 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
1705 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
1706 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
1707 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
1708 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
1709 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
1710 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
1711 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
1713 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
1714 the dlopen family of functions.
1716 ** New function `provided?'
1718 - Function: provided? FEATURE
1719 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
1720 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
1721 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
1723 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
1725 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
1726 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
1727 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
1728 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
1731 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
1732 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
1733 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
1734 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
1736 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
1737 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
1738 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
1741 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
1742 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
1743 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
1744 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
1745 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
1746 but with the flag set.
1748 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
1750 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
1751 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
1753 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
1754 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
1755 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
1756 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
1757 available Scheme format implementations.
1759 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
1760 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
1761 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
1762 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
1763 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
1764 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
1765 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
1766 output is to the current error port if available by the
1767 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
1770 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
1771 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
1772 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
1773 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
1774 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
1775 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
1776 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
1777 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
1779 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
1780 be executed at a time.
1783 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
1785 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
1786 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
1787 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
1789 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
1790 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
1791 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
1792 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
1793 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
1794 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
1795 general form of a directive is:
1797 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
1799 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
1801 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
1803 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
1804 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
1805 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
1808 Any (print as `display' does).
1812 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
1816 S-expression (print as `write' does).
1820 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
1826 print number sign always.
1829 print comma separated.
1831 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
1837 print number sign always.
1840 print comma separated.
1842 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
1848 print number sign always.
1851 print comma separated.
1853 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
1859 print number sign always.
1862 print comma separated.
1864 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
1869 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
1873 print a number as a Roman numeral.
1876 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
1879 print a number as an ordinal English number.
1882 print a number as a cardinal English number.
1887 prints `y' and `ies'.
1890 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
1893 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
1898 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
1902 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
1905 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
1906 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
1908 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
1911 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
1912 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
1914 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
1917 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
1919 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
1921 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
1924 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
1926 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
1928 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
1931 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
1934 The sign appears before the padding.
1942 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
1944 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
1949 print N page separators.
1959 newline is ignored, white space left.
1962 newline is left, white space ignored.
1967 relative tabulation.
1973 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
1975 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
1978 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
1980 converts by `string-capitalize'.
1983 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
1986 converts by `string-upcase'.
1989 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
1991 jumps N arguments forward.
1994 jumps 1 argument backward.
1997 jumps N arguments backward.
2000 jumps to the 0th argument.
2003 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
2005 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
2006 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
2008 take argument from N.
2011 true test conditional.
2014 if-else-then conditional.
2020 default clause follows.
2023 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
2025 at most N iterations.
2028 args from next arg (a list of lists).
2031 args from the rest of arguments.
2034 args from the rest args (lists).
2045 aborts if N <= M <= K
2047 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2050 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2053 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2059 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
2061 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
2063 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
2064 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
2065 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
2066 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
2067 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
2068 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
2072 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
2076 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
2082 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
2085 Print a `#\space' character
2087 print N `#\space' characters.
2090 Print a `#\tab' character
2092 print N `#\tab' characters.
2095 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
2096 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
2097 must be a positive decimal number.
2100 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2101 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2102 be processed by `read'.
2105 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2106 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2107 be processed by `read'.
2110 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
2113 prints format version.
2116 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
2117 and format it accordingly.
2119 *** Configuration Variables
2121 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
2122 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
2123 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
2124 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
2127 format:symbol-case-conv
2128 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
2129 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
2130 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
2131 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
2132 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
2134 format:iobj-case-conv
2135 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
2136 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
2139 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
2142 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
2148 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
2149 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
2150 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
2151 `format' padding style.
2154 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
2155 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
2156 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
2157 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
2161 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
2162 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
2163 directive parameters or modifiers)).
2166 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
2167 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
2168 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
2169 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
2170 parameters or modifiers)).
2173 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
2175 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
2177 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
2178 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
2180 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
2181 string-downcase! functions.
2183 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
2184 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
2186 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
2189 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
2192 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
2193 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
2195 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
2197 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
2198 the symbol had be read by `read'.
2200 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
2201 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
2202 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
2203 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
2204 would if STRING were input.
2206 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
2208 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
2209 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
2210 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
2211 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
2214 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
2216 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
2217 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
2220 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
2222 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
2223 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
2225 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
2226 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
2228 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
2229 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
2230 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
2231 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
2233 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
2234 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
2236 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
2237 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
2238 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
2240 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
2241 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
2243 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
2244 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
2245 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
2246 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
2247 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
2249 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
2250 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
2251 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
2252 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
2253 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
2254 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
2256 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
2257 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
2258 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
2261 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
2262 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
2263 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
2264 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
2265 the following grammar:
2266 ((apples (single-char #\a))
2267 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
2268 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
2269 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
2270 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
2271 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
2272 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
2273 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
2274 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
2275 last option in its combination)
2277 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
2278 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
2279 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
2280 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
2282 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
2283 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
2284 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
2286 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
2287 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
2288 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
2290 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
2291 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
2292 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
2293 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
2294 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
2295 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
2296 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
2297 ordinary argument strings.
2299 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
2300 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
2301 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
2302 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
2304 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
2305 as a list, associated with the empty list.
2307 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
2308 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
2309 - a required option is omitted
2310 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
2311 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
2312 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
2313 - an option predicate fails
2318 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
2321 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
2322 (verbose (required? #f)
2325 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
2326 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
2327 (predicate ,string?))))
2329 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
2330 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
2332 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
2333 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
2334 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
2335 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
2338 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
2340 It will be removed in a few releases.
2342 ** New syntax: lambda*
2343 ** New syntax: define*
2344 ** New syntax: define*-public
2345 ** New syntax: defmacro*
2346 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
2347 Guile now supports optional arguments.
2349 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
2350 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
2351 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
2352 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
2353 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
2355 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
2356 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
2357 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
2359 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
2361 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
2362 and examples for `lambda*':
2365 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
2367 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
2368 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
2369 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
2370 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
2371 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
2372 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
2373 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
2374 can be checked with the bound? macro.
2376 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
2378 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
2379 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
2380 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
2381 are given as keywords are bound to values.
2383 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
2384 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
2385 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
2386 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
2387 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
2388 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
2389 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
2390 and until the procedure is called.
2392 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
2394 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
2395 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
2396 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
2397 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
2398 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
2399 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
2400 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
2401 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
2402 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
2403 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
2405 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
2406 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
2407 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
2408 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
2411 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
2413 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
2414 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
2415 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
2416 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
2418 ** New syntax: and-let*
2419 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
2421 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
2422 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
2423 (<variable> <expression>)
2426 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
2427 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
2428 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
2431 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
2432 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
2433 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
2434 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
2435 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
2436 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
2437 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
2439 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
2440 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
2441 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
2442 shadow earlier bindings.
2444 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
2446 ** New sorting functions
2448 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
2449 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
2450 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
2451 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
2453 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
2454 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
2457 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
2458 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
2459 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
2461 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
2462 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
2463 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
2464 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
2466 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
2467 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
2468 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
2469 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
2470 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
2473 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
2474 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
2475 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
2476 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
2477 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
2478 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
2480 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
2481 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
2482 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
2484 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
2485 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
2486 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
2489 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
2490 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
2491 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
2493 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
2494 Added for compatibility with scsh.
2496 ** New built-in random number support
2498 *** New function: random N [STATE]
2499 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
2500 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
2501 returned have a uniform distribution.
2503 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
2504 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
2505 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
2506 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
2507 effect of the `random' operation.
2509 *** New variable: *random-state*
2510 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
2511 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
2512 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
2513 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
2514 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
2517 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
2518 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
2519 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
2520 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
2521 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
2523 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
2524 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
2525 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
2526 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
2527 initialized using SEED.
2529 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
2530 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
2531 range between 0 and 1.
2533 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
2534 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
2535 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
2536 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
2537 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
2538 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
2539 or a uniform vector of doubles.
2541 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
2542 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
2543 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
2544 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
2545 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
2546 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
2548 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
2549 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
2550 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
2551 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
2553 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
2554 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
2555 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
2556 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
2558 *** New function: random:exp STATE
2559 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
2560 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
2562 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
2564 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
2567 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
2568 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
2571 ** New function: make-guardian
2572 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
2573 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
2574 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
2575 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
2576 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
2578 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
2579 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
2580 one object if at all.
2582 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
2583 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
2584 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
2586 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
2587 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
2588 read again in last-in first-out order.
2590 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
2591 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
2593 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
2595 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
2596 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
2597 file position is used.
2599 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
2600 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
2601 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
2603 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
2604 redefined using seek.
2606 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
2607 size is not supplied.
2609 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
2610 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
2612 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
2613 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
2615 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
2617 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
2618 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
2619 and returns the contents as a single string.
2621 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
2622 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
2623 lists in serial order.
2625 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
2626 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
2627 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
2629 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
2630 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
2631 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
2632 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
2634 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
2635 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
2636 and #f if an error occured.
2638 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
2640 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
2641 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
2642 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
2643 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
2645 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
2647 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
2650 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
2652 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
2655 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2659 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
2660 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
2662 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
2663 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
2667 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2669 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
2671 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
2672 binds a variable named NAME to it.
2674 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
2676 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
2677 might change when we get the new module system.
2679 ** The smob interface
2681 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
2682 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
2684 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
2686 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
2690 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
2691 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
2692 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
2693 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
2694 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
2695 will be freed by the default free function.
2697 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
2698 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
2699 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2700 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2702 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
2703 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
2704 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2705 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2707 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
2709 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
2710 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
2714 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
2715 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2716 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2718 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
2719 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
2720 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2721 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2723 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
2724 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
2725 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
2727 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
2728 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
2729 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
2730 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
2732 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
2733 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
2734 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
2736 *** scm_newptob has been removed
2740 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
2742 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
2743 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
2744 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
2746 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
2747 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
2748 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
2750 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
2751 a string port's buffer.
2753 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
2754 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
2755 function pointers which together define the current random number
2756 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
2757 number library functions.
2759 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
2762 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
2763 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
2766 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
2767 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
2769 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
2770 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
2772 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
2773 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
2776 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
2777 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
2778 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
2779 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
2781 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
2782 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
2783 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
2784 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
2785 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
2786 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
2787 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
2789 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
2790 by libguile and the application.
2792 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
2793 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
2794 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
2795 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
2797 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
2798 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
2800 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
2801 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
2802 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
2804 ** Random number library functions
2805 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
2806 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
2807 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
2809 The default random state is stored in:
2811 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
2812 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
2813 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
2818 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
2820 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
2821 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
2822 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
2823 isn't a random state.
2825 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
2826 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
2828 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
2829 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
2830 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
2831 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
2833 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
2834 Return 32 random bits.
2836 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
2837 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
2839 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
2840 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
2842 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
2843 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
2845 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
2846 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
2848 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
2849 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
2850 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
2854 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
2856 * Changes to the distribution
2858 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
2859 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
2860 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
2863 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
2864 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
2865 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
2867 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
2868 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
2869 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
2870 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
2873 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
2874 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
2875 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
2877 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2879 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
2881 *** Function: batch-mode?
2883 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
2886 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
2888 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
2889 case has not been implemented.
2891 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
2892 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
2893 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
2896 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
2897 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
2899 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
2901 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
2903 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
2905 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
2906 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
2909 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
2910 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
2911 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
2912 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
2915 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
2917 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
2918 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
2919 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
2920 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
2921 find those libraries.
2923 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
2924 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
2927 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
2929 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
2930 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
2931 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
2932 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
2934 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
2935 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
2936 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
2940 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
2942 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
2943 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
2944 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
2947 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
2948 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
2949 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
2950 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
2952 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
2953 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
2956 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
2957 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
2958 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
2959 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
2960 compiler where to find the libraries.
2962 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
2963 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
2964 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
2966 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
2967 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
2968 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
2969 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
2970 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
2974 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2976 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
2977 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
2978 internationalization support.
2980 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
2981 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
2982 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
2983 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
2984 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
2986 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
2987 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
2988 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
2989 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
2990 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
2992 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
2993 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
2994 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
2995 any GNU mirror site.
2997 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
2999 ** New function: add-history STRING
3000 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
3001 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
3002 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
3004 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
3006 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
3007 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
3008 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
3011 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
3012 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
3013 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
3015 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
3017 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
3020 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
3021 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
3024 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
3025 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
3026 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
3027 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
3028 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
3029 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
3031 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
3032 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
3033 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
3034 of the form mentioned above.
3036 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
3037 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
3038 returned in the special `rest' list.
3040 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
3041 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
3043 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
3045 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
3047 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
3049 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
3050 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
3051 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
3052 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
3053 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
3054 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
3055 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
3056 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
3059 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
3061 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
3063 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
3064 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
3067 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
3068 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
3069 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
3073 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
3074 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
3075 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
3076 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
3077 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
3078 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
3079 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
3080 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
3083 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
3085 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
3086 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
3087 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
3089 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
3091 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
3092 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
3094 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
3095 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
3096 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
3098 Why do we have this function?
3099 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
3100 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
3101 primitive, and display it differently, and
3102 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
3103 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
3106 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
3107 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
3110 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
3111 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
3112 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
3113 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
3115 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
3116 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
3119 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
3120 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
3122 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
3124 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
3125 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
3126 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
3127 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
3128 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
3129 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
3130 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
3133 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
3135 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
3136 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
3138 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
3139 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
3140 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
3141 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
3142 properly continue the print chain.
3144 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
3145 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
3146 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
3147 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
3148 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
3149 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
3150 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
3151 print-state, it is simply ignored.
3153 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
3154 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
3155 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
3156 safest to not check for these pairs.
3158 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
3159 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
3160 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
3161 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
3163 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
3165 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
3166 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
3168 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
3170 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
3172 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
3173 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
3174 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
3176 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
3177 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
3178 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
3180 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
3181 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
3182 the following functions and macros:
3184 Function: make-fluid
3186 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
3187 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
3188 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
3189 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
3190 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
3192 Function: fluid? OBJ
3194 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
3196 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
3197 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
3199 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
3200 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
3202 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
3204 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
3205 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
3206 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
3207 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
3208 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
3209 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
3210 modified by `with-fluids*'.
3212 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
3214 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
3215 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
3216 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
3217 should evaluate to a fluid.
3219 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
3221 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
3222 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
3223 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
3224 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
3225 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
3227 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
3230 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
3232 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
3234 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
3236 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
3239 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
3240 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
3241 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
3242 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
3243 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
3246 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
3247 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
3248 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
3250 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
3251 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
3252 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
3254 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
3255 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
3256 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
3257 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
3259 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
3260 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
3261 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
3262 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
3264 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
3265 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
3266 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
3267 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
3269 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
3270 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
3271 their revealed counts set to zero.
3273 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3274 Returns an integer file descriptor.
3276 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3277 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
3279 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3280 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
3282 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3283 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
3284 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
3286 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
3287 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
3288 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
3290 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
3291 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
3292 default environment inherited by child processes.
3294 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
3295 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
3296 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
3298 The return value is unspecified.
3300 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
3301 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
3302 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
3303 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
3304 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
3306 The return value is unspecified.
3308 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
3309 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
3317 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
3318 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
3321 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
3324 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
3325 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
3326 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
3328 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
3329 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
3330 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
3331 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
3334 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
3335 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
3337 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
3338 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
3339 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
3340 the `environ' procedure.
3342 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
3343 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
3346 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
3347 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
3349 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
3350 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
3351 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
3352 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
3354 *** procedure: times
3355 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
3356 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
3357 return a selected component:
3360 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
3364 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
3367 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
3371 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
3372 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
3376 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
3377 terminated child processes.
3379 ** Removed: list-length
3380 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
3381 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
3383 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
3385 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
3387 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
3389 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
3390 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
3391 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
3392 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
3394 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
3395 extra complexity it introduces.
3397 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
3398 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
3400 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
3401 variable to any non-empty value.
3403 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
3404 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
3406 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3408 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
3409 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
3411 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
3413 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
3414 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
3416 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
3418 ** vector handling routines
3420 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
3421 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
3422 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
3423 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
3424 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
3426 ** pair and list routines
3428 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
3431 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
3433 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
3436 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3438 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
3440 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
3441 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
3442 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
3443 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
3444 site-specific initialization code.
3446 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
3447 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
3448 initialization processes.
3450 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
3451 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
3452 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
3453 initialized properly.
3455 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
3456 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
3457 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
3459 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
3460 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
3461 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
3462 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
3463 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
3465 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
3467 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
3468 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
3469 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
3470 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
3471 objects the smob refers to get marked.
3473 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
3474 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
3475 which look like this:
3478 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
3480 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
3481 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
3484 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
3485 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
3488 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
3490 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
3491 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
3492 you will need to change your functions slightly.
3494 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
3495 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
3496 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
3497 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
3498 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
3500 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
3501 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
3503 int (*free) (SCM port);
3504 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
3505 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
3506 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
3510 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
3511 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
3512 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
3514 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
3517 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
3518 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
3519 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
3521 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
3522 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
3523 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
3526 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
3530 struct timeval *timeout);
3532 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
3533 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
3534 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
3535 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
3536 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
3537 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
3539 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
3540 scm_catch_body_t body,
3542 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
3545 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
3546 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
3547 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
3548 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
3549 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
3550 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
3552 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
3554 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
3557 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
3558 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
3559 spawning threads from application C code.
3561 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
3562 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
3563 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
3564 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
3565 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
3566 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
3568 ** Removed functions:
3570 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
3571 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
3573 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
3575 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
3576 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
3578 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
3580 ** mbstrings are now removed
3582 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
3583 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
3585 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
3587 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
3588 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
3589 their new names and arguments:
3591 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
3592 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
3593 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
3594 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
3597 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
3599 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
3601 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
3604 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
3606 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
3607 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
3608 pass a #f arg to catch.
3610 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
3612 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
3613 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
3616 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
3617 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
3618 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
3619 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
3620 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
3621 reclaim its storage.
3623 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
3624 worrying that some other function you call will call
3625 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
3626 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
3627 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
3628 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
3631 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
3633 * Changes to the distribution
3635 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
3636 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
3639 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
3640 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
3642 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
3643 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
3645 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
3647 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
3648 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
3649 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
3651 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
3653 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
3654 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
3655 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
3656 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
3657 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
3658 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
3660 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
3661 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
3662 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
3665 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
3666 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
3667 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
3668 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
3670 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
3671 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
3672 libraries to your link command:
3674 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
3675 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
3676 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
3677 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
3679 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
3680 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
3681 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
3683 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3685 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
3686 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
3689 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
3691 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
3692 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
3693 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
3694 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
3695 searched is system dependent.
3697 (dynamic-object? VAL)
3699 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
3701 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
3703 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
3704 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
3706 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
3708 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
3709 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
3710 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
3711 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
3712 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
3715 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
3717 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
3718 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
3719 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
3720 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
3721 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
3723 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
3725 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
3726 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
3728 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
3730 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
3731 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
3732 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
3735 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
3737 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
3738 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
3739 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
3740 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
3742 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
3743 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
3745 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
3747 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
3748 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
3750 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
3752 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
3753 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
3761 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
3763 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
3764 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
3765 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
3766 a more informative way.
3768 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
3769 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
3770 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
3771 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
3772 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
3773 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
3775 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
3776 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
3779 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
3780 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
3781 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
3784 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
3785 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
3786 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
3787 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
3788 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
3789 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
3791 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
3792 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
3793 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
3794 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
3797 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
3798 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
3799 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
3800 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
3801 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
3802 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
3804 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
3805 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
3806 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
3807 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
3808 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
3810 *** regexp functions
3812 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
3813 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
3814 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
3816 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
3817 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
3818 with SCSH regular expressions.
3820 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
3821 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
3822 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
3823 position of STR at which to begin matching.
3825 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
3826 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
3827 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
3828 `string-match' returns `#f'.
3830 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
3831 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
3832 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
3833 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
3834 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
3835 match strings against the compiled regexp.
3837 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
3838 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
3839 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
3840 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
3841 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
3843 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
3845 **** Constant: regexp/extended
3846 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
3847 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
3848 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
3850 **** Constant: regexp/icase
3851 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
3852 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
3854 **** Constant: regexp/newline
3855 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
3857 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
3860 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
3861 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
3862 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
3864 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
3865 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
3866 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
3868 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
3869 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
3870 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
3871 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
3872 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
3875 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
3877 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
3878 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
3879 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
3880 used when different portions of a string are passed to
3881 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
3882 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
3884 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
3885 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
3886 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
3888 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
3889 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
3892 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
3893 and replace them with the contents of another string.
3895 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
3896 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
3897 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
3898 may be one of the following arguments:
3900 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
3902 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
3904 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
3905 the regexp match is written.
3907 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
3908 following the regexp match is written.
3910 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
3911 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
3914 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
3915 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
3916 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
3917 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
3918 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
3919 which should be matched against this regular expression.
3921 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
3924 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
3925 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
3926 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
3927 written out to PORT.
3929 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
3930 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
3931 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
3932 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
3933 will return after processing a single match.
3935 *** Match Structures
3937 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
3938 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
3939 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
3940 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
3941 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
3942 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
3945 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
3946 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
3947 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
3948 information about the original target string that was matched against a
3949 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
3951 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
3952 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
3953 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
3955 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
3956 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
3957 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
3958 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
3959 number N did not match, return `#f'.
3961 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
3962 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
3964 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
3965 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
3967 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
3968 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
3970 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
3971 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
3973 **** Function: match:count MATCH
3974 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
3975 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
3976 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
3978 **** Function: match:string MATCH
3979 Return the original TARGET string.
3981 *** Backslash Escapes
3983 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
3984 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
3985 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
3986 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
3987 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
3988 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
3990 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
3991 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
3992 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
3993 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
3994 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
3995 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
3996 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
3997 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
3999 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
4000 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
4001 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
4002 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
4003 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
4004 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
4005 each match a single backslash in the target string.
4007 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
4008 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
4009 return the resulting string.
4011 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
4012 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
4013 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
4014 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
4015 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
4016 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
4017 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
4018 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
4019 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
4020 translated to the single character `*'.
4022 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
4023 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
4024 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
4025 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
4026 consecutive backslashes:
4028 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
4030 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
4031 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
4032 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
4034 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
4035 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
4036 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
4037 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
4038 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
4039 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
4041 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
4043 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
4044 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
4045 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
4046 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
4047 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
4048 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
4049 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
4050 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
4051 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
4052 cumbersome escape syntax.
4054 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4056 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4058 * Changes to system call interfaces:
4060 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
4063 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
4065 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
4067 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
4070 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
4071 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
4072 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
4073 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
4074 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
4076 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
4077 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
4078 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
4079 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
4080 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
4081 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
4082 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
4085 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
4086 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
4087 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
4090 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
4091 `force-output' on every port open for output.
4093 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
4094 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
4095 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
4096 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
4097 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
4098 installed, you can say:
4100 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
4103 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4105 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
4106 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
4107 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
4108 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
4109 new dynamic roots and threads.
4112 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
4114 * Changes to the distribution.
4116 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
4118 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
4119 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
4120 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
4121 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
4122 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
4123 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
4124 programming language. These are packaged together because the
4125 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
4127 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
4130 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
4131 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
4136 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4138 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
4139 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
4141 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
4142 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
4143 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
4144 the (command-line) function.
4145 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
4146 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
4147 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
4149 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
4150 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
4151 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
4152 command line arguments
4153 -ds do -s script at this point
4154 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
4155 -h, --help display this help and exit
4156 -v, --version display version information and exit
4157 \ read arguments from following script lines
4159 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
4160 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
4162 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
4165 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
4169 (main (command-line))
4171 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
4173 ekko a speckled gecko
4175 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
4176 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
4177 following list of command-line arguments:
4179 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
4181 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
4182 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
4183 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
4184 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
4185 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
4187 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
4189 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
4191 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
4192 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
4195 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
4196 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
4197 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
4198 SCSH) for circumventing them.
4200 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
4201 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
4202 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
4203 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
4205 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
4209 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
4213 If the user invokes this script as follows:
4215 ekko a speckled gecko
4217 Unix expands this into
4219 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
4221 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
4222 read from the second line of the script, producing:
4224 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
4226 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
4227 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
4229 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
4230 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
4231 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
4232 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
4233 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
4234 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
4235 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
4236 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
4237 it only terminates the argument list.)
4238 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
4239 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
4240 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
4241 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
4242 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
4243 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
4244 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
4245 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
4247 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4249 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
4250 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
4251 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
4252 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
4253 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
4255 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
4256 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
4257 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
4259 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
4261 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
4262 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
4263 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
4264 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
4267 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
4268 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
4269 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
4271 * Changes to Scheme functions
4273 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
4274 and disabled by default.
4276 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
4277 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
4278 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
4279 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
4281 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
4283 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
4285 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
4286 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
4288 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
4289 (read-set! keywords #f)
4291 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
4292 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
4293 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
4296 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
4297 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
4298 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
4301 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
4302 support for Scheme functions.
4304 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
4305 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
4306 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
4307 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
4310 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
4311 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
4312 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
4315 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
4316 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
4317 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
4320 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
4321 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
4322 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
4323 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
4324 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
4325 display the result as a prompt.
4326 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
4328 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
4329 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
4330 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
4333 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
4334 procedure of zero arguments.
4336 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
4337 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
4338 argument is bound in the current module.
4340 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
4341 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
4342 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
4343 public bindings into the current module.
4345 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
4346 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
4348 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
4349 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
4351 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
4352 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
4354 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
4355 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
4357 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
4358 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
4360 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
4361 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
4362 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
4363 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
4364 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
4366 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
4367 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
4368 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
4369 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
4371 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
4374 ** Changes to I/O functions
4376 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
4377 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
4378 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
4380 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
4381 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
4382 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
4384 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
4385 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
4387 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
4388 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
4389 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
4390 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
4392 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
4394 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
4395 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
4397 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
4398 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
4399 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
4400 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
4401 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
4404 'trim omit delimiter from result
4405 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
4406 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
4407 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
4409 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
4411 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
4412 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
4414 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
4415 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
4416 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
4417 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
4418 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
4420 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
4421 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
4422 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
4424 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
4425 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
4426 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
4427 above, and defaults to 'peek.
4429 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
4430 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
4432 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
4433 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
4435 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
4437 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
4438 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
4439 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
4440 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
4441 a delimiting character.
4442 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
4444 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
4445 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
4446 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
4447 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
4448 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
4449 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
4451 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
4452 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
4454 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
4455 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
4456 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
4458 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
4459 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
4460 the array to read and write.
4462 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
4463 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
4466 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
4468 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
4471 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
4472 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
4473 Values for COMMAND are:
4475 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
4476 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
4477 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
4478 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
4479 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
4480 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
4481 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
4482 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
4484 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
4486 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
4487 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
4488 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
4489 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
4490 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
4491 corresponding return set will be the same.
4493 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
4496 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
4497 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
4498 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
4499 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
4500 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
4501 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
4502 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
4503 special file being created.
4505 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
4506 clashing with various SCSH forks.
4508 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
4509 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
4510 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
4511 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
4512 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
4513 and originating address.
4515 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
4516 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
4517 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
4519 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
4522 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
4523 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
4526 (status:exit-val STATUS)
4527 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
4528 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
4529 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
4530 this function returns #f.
4532 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
4533 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
4534 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
4537 (status:term-sig STATUS)
4538 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
4539 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
4542 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
4543 a valid STATUS value.
4545 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
4547 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
4548 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
4550 Component Accessor Setter
4551 ========================= ============ ============
4552 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
4553 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
4554 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
4555 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
4556 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
4557 year tm:year set-tm:year
4558 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
4559 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
4560 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
4561 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
4562 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
4564 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
4565 describing the host system:
4568 ============================================== ================
4569 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
4570 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
4571 release level of the operating system utsname:release
4572 version level of the operating system utsname:version
4573 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
4575 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
4576 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
4577 system's user database:
4580 ====================== =================
4581 user name passwd:name
4582 user password passwd:passwd
4585 real name passwd:gecos
4586 home directory passwd:dir
4587 shell program passwd:shell
4589 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
4590 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
4591 system's group database:
4594 ======================= ============
4595 group name group:name
4596 group password group:passwd
4598 group members group:mem
4600 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
4601 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
4605 ========================= ===============
4606 official name of host hostent:name
4607 alias list hostent:aliases
4608 host address type hostent:addrtype
4609 length of address hostent:length
4610 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
4612 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
4613 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
4617 ========================= ===============
4618 official name of net netent:name
4619 alias list netent:aliases
4620 net number type netent:addrtype
4621 net number netent:net
4623 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
4624 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
4628 ========================= ===============
4629 official protocol name protoent:name
4630 alias list protoent:aliases
4631 protocol number protoent:proto
4633 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
4634 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
4638 ========================= ===============
4639 official service name servent:name
4640 alias list servent:aliases
4641 port number servent:port
4642 protocol to use servent:proto
4644 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
4645 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
4648 ======================================== ===============
4649 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
4650 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
4651 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
4652 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
4654 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
4655 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
4656 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
4658 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
4659 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
4661 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
4662 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
4664 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
4665 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
4667 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
4669 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
4671 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
4672 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
4673 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
4675 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
4676 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
4677 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
4678 return the remaining characters as a string.
4680 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
4681 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
4682 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
4684 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
4686 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4688 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
4691 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
4694 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
4695 and returns the array
4697 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
4698 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
4699 the user to interpret the data both ways.
4701 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4703 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
4704 symbol's value from C code:
4706 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
4707 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
4708 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
4709 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
4711 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
4712 without assigning them a value.
4714 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
4715 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
4716 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
4718 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
4719 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
4720 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
4722 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
4723 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
4725 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
4726 doesn't actually care about that.
4728 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
4729 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
4730 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
4732 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
4733 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
4734 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
4735 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
4736 which we have just created and initialized.
4738 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
4739 should one occur. We call it like this:
4740 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
4742 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
4743 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
4744 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
4745 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
4746 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
4747 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
4750 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
4751 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
4752 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
4753 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
4754 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
4755 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
4756 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
4759 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
4760 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
4761 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
4762 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
4763 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
4766 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
4767 scm_internal_catch, except:
4769 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
4770 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
4771 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
4772 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
4775 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
4776 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
4777 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
4779 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
4780 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
4781 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
4782 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
4785 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
4786 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
4787 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
4789 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
4790 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
4791 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
4792 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
4793 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
4795 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
4796 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
4797 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
4799 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
4800 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
4801 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
4803 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
4804 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
4806 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
4807 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
4808 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
4811 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
4812 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
4813 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
4814 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
4815 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
4816 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
4817 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
4820 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
4821 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
4823 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
4824 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
4825 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
4826 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
4827 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
4830 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
4831 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
4833 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
4834 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
4837 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
4838 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
4840 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
4843 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
4844 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
4845 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
4846 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
4847 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
4848 given the following arguments:
4850 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
4852 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
4854 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
4856 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
4859 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
4860 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
4861 command-line arguments.
4863 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
4864 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
4865 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
4866 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
4867 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
4868 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
4871 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
4874 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
4875 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
4877 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
4878 rearranged slightly. They are now:
4880 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
4881 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
4882 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
4883 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
4885 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
4886 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
4888 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
4889 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
4890 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
4891 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
4893 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
4894 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
4896 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
4897 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
4899 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
4901 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
4902 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
4903 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
4906 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
4907 returns a port instead of an FD object.
4909 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
4910 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
4915 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
4918 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
4920 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
4921 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
4922 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
4923 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
4925 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
4927 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
4929 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
4930 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
4931 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
4932 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
4933 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
4934 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
4935 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
4936 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
4937 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
4938 for more information.
4940 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
4941 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
4943 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
4944 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
4945 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
4946 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
4947 following two lines at the top of the file:
4949 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
4952 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
4953 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
4954 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
4956 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
4958 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
4960 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
4963 (display (car args))
4964 (if (pair? (cdr args))
4966 (loop (cdr args)))))
4969 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
4970 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
4971 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
4972 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
4973 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
4974 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
4978 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
4981 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
4984 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
4986 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
4987 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
4988 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
4989 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
4990 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
4993 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
4994 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
4995 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
4996 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
4997 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
5000 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
5003 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
5004 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
5005 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
5008 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
5009 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
5010 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
5012 to see a backtrace, and
5013 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
5014 to see them by default.
5018 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
5020 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
5022 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
5023 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
5026 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
5027 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
5028 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
5029 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
5032 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
5033 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
5034 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
5035 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
5036 functions which inspired them.
5038 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
5039 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
5043 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
5045 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
5047 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
5048 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
5051 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
5052 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
5053 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
5055 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
5056 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
5057 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
5058 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
5059 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
5061 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
5063 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
5064 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
5065 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
5068 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
5071 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
5073 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
5074 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
5075 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
5076 above should serve their purposes.
5078 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
5079 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
5080 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
5081 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
5083 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
5086 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
5087 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
5088 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
5089 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
5091 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
5092 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
5093 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
5094 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
5096 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
5097 for the `read' function.
5100 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
5101 to that of `integer?'.
5103 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
5104 use the R4RS names for these functions.
5106 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
5107 it simply returns the object's property list.
5109 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
5110 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
5111 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
5112 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
5114 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
5116 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
5119 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
5121 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
5122 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
5124 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
5126 void (*main_func) (),
5129 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
5130 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
5131 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
5132 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
5133 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
5135 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
5136 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
5137 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
5138 know which arguments have been processed.
5140 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
5141 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
5142 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
5143 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
5144 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
5146 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
5147 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
5148 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
5149 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
5150 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
5151 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
5152 people from making that mistake.
5154 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
5155 convenient ways to override these when desired.
5157 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
5159 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
5163 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
5166 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
5167 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
5168 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
5169 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
5172 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
5173 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
5174 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
5175 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
5178 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
5179 have been added to the Guile library.
5181 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
5182 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
5183 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
5186 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
5187 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
5188 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
5190 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
5191 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
5192 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
5193 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
5194 argument from the list.
5197 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
5200 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
5201 null-terminated string, and returns it.
5203 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
5204 to a Scheme port object.
5206 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
5207 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
5212 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
5214 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
5215 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
5216 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
5217 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
5218 code as a special datatype.
5220 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
5221 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
5222 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
5223 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
5224 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
5227 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
5228 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
5229 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
5230 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
5231 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
5233 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
5236 Copyright information:
5238 Copyright (C) 1996,1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5240 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
5241 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
5242 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
5243 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
5245 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
5246 of this document, or of portions of it,
5247 under the above conditions, provided also that they
5248 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
5253 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"