1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Each release reports the NEWS in the following sections:
9 * Changes to the distribution
10 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
11 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
12 * Changes to the C interface
15 Changes since the 1.6.x series:
17 * Changes to the distribution
19 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
21 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
23 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
25 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
27 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
29 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
32 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
34 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
35 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
36 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
37 so the current effective-version is "1.7". The effective version
38 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
39 items like the versioned share directory name
40 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.7.
42 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
43 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
44 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
45 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
46 with each micro release during a stable series.
48 ** Thread implementation has changed.
50 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
51 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
52 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
53 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
54 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
57 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
58 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
59 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
60 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
61 the GC. See the manual for details. [XXX - write this.]
63 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
64 in which case "null" threads are used.
66 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
68 This is a milder form of deprecation.
70 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
71 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
72 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
73 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
74 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
76 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
77 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
79 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
81 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
82 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
84 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
86 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when
87 you don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but
88 where you have some section(s) of code which you consider can run
89 in parallel to other sections.
91 ### move rest to manual
93 They "flag" (with dynamic extent) sections of code to be of
94 "serial" or "parallel" nature and have the single effect of
95 preventing a serial section from being run in parallel with any
96 serial section (including itself).
98 Both serialize and parallelize can be nested. If so, the
99 inner-most construct is in effect.
101 NOTE 1: A serial section can run in parallel with a parallel
104 NOTE 2: If a serial section S is "interrupted" by a parallel
105 section P in the following manner: S = S1 P S2, S2 is not
106 guaranteed to be resumed by the same thread that previously
109 WARNING: Spawning new threads within a serial section have
110 undefined effects. It is OK, though, to spawn threads in unflagged
111 sections of code where neither serialize or parallelize is in
114 A typical usage is when Guile is used as scripting language in some
115 application doing heavy computations. If each thread is
116 encapsulated with a serialize form, you can then put a parallelize
117 form around the code performing the heavy computations (typically a
118 C code primitive), enabling the computations to run in parallel
119 while the scripting code runs single-threadedly.
121 ** New module (srfi srfi-26)
123 This is an implementation of SRFI-26.
125 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
127 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
128 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
130 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
131 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
134 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
135 with a renaming import, for example.
137 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
139 The official version is good enough now.
141 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
143 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
144 provided. Use 'make html'.
146 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
148 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
151 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
153 ** New command line option `-L'.
155 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
157 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
159 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
160 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
162 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
164 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
165 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
167 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
169 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
170 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
173 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
176 (define-module (demo)
180 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
183 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
185 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
187 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
188 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
189 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
192 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
194 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
195 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
197 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
198 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
199 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform vectors.
200 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
201 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
203 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
204 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
205 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
207 Arrays use generalized vectors their storage, so that you still have
208 arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read! and
209 uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and bitvectors.
211 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
212 substrings and read-only strings.
214 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
215 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
218 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
220 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
229 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
230 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
231 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
233 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
234 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
235 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
238 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
239 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
242 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
244 See the manual for details.
246 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
248 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
251 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
253 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
254 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
255 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
256 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
258 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
259 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
260 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
263 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
265 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
266 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
277 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
281 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
286 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
290 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
294 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
296 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
297 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
298 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
301 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
304 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
306 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
309 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
310 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
318 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
319 has been detected is to
321 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
322 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
323 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
326 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
329 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
331 to your .guile init file.
333 ### move rest to manual
335 The syntax for the :duplicates option is:
337 :duplicates HANDLER-NAME | (HANDLER1-NAME HANDLER2-NAME ...)
339 Specifying multiple handlers is useful since some handlers (such as
340 replace) can defer conflict resolution to others. Each handler is
341 tried until a binding is selected.
343 Currently available duplicates handlers are:
345 check report an error for bindings with a common name
346 warn issue a warning for bindings with a common name
347 replace replace bindings which have an imported replacement
348 warn-override-core issue a warning for imports which override core bindings
349 and accept the override
350 first select the first encountered binding (override)
351 last select the last encountered binding (override)
353 These two are provided by the (oop goops) module:
355 merge-generics merge generic functions with a common name
356 into an <extended-generic>
357 merge-accessors merge accessors with a common name
359 The default duplicates handler is:
361 (replace warn-override-core warn last)
363 A recommended handler (which is likely to correspond to future Guile
364 behavior) can be installed with:
366 (default-duplicate-binding-handler '(replace warn-override-core check))
368 ** New define-module option: :replace
370 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
373 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
374 for the core binding `format'.
376 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
378 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
379 a prefix to all imported bindings.
382 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
384 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
387 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
389 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
390 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
391 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
393 ### move the rest to the manual
395 It is sometimes tempting to use GOOPS accessors with short names.
396 For example, it is tempting to use the name `x' for the x-coordinate
399 Assume that we work with a graphical package which needs to use two
400 independent vector packages for 2D and 3D vectors respectively. If
401 both packages export `x' we will encounter a name collision.
403 This can now be resolved automagically with the duplicates handler
404 `merge-generics' which gives the module system license to merge all
405 generic functions sharing a common name:
407 (define-module (math 2D-vectors)
408 :use-module (oop goops)
411 (define-module (math 3D-vectors)
412 :use-module (oop goops)
415 (define-module (my-module)
416 :use-module (math 2D-vectors)
417 :use-module (math 3D-vectors)
418 :duplicates merge-generics)
420 x in (my-module) will now share methods with x in both imported
423 There will, in fact, now be three distinct generic functions named
424 `x': x in (2D-vectors), x in (3D-vectors), and x in (my-module). The
425 last function will be an <extended-generic>, extending the previous
428 Let's call the imported generic functions the "ancestor functions". x
429 in (my-module) is, in turn, a "descendant function" of the imported
430 functions, extending its ancestors.
432 For any generic function G, the applicable methods are selected from
433 the union of the methods of the descendant functions, the methods of G
434 itself and the methods of the ancestor functions.
436 This, ancestor functions share methods with their descendants and vice
437 versa. This implies that x in (math 2D-vectors) can will share the
438 methods of x in (my-module) and vice versa, while x in (math 2D-vectors)
439 doesn't share the methods of x in (math 3D-vectors), thus preserving
442 Sharing is dynamic, so that adding new methods to a descendant implies
443 adding it to the ancestor.
445 If duplicates checking is desired in the above example, the following
446 form of the :duplicates option can be used instead:
448 :duplicates (merge-generics check)
450 ** New function: effective-version
452 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
453 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
454 to the distribution" above.
456 ** New feature, 'futures': future, make-future, future-ref
458 Futures are like promises, but begin execution immediately in a new
459 thread. See the "Futures" section in the reference manual.
461 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
463 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
464 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
466 ** Fair mutexes and condition variables
468 Fair mutexes and condition variables have been added. The fairness
469 means that scheduling is arranged to give as equal time shares as
470 possible and that threads are awakened in a first-in-first-out
471 manner. This is not guaranteed with standard mutexes and condition
474 In addition, fair mutexes are recursive. Locking a fair mutex that
475 you have already locked will succeed. Every call to lock-mutex must
476 be matched with a call to unlock-mutex. Only the last call to
477 unlock-mutex will actually unlock the mutex.
479 A fair condition variable must be used together with a fair mutex,
480 just as a standard condition variable must be used together with a
483 *** New functions: make-fair-mutex, make-fair-condition-variable'
485 Make a new fair mutex and a new fair condition variable respectively.
487 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
489 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
490 instead if blocking and indicate failure.
492 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
494 The funtion 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
495 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
498 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
500 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
502 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
504 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
505 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
506 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
509 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
510 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
511 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
514 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
515 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
517 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
519 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
520 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
523 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
524 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
526 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
527 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
528 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
529 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
530 level for the current thread.
532 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
534 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
536 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
537 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
540 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
542 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
544 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
547 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
549 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
552 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
553 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
554 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
556 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
557 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
558 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
559 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
570 ERROR: Numerical overflow
572 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
575 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
577 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
578 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
579 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
590 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
592 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
593 them is also done exactly, of course:
598 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
601 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
602 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
604 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
606 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
607 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
608 equal to a floating point number. For example:
610 (inexact->exact 1.234)
611 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
613 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitely:
615 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
618 ** New function 'rationalize'.
620 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
621 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
623 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
626 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
627 result when both its arguments are exact.
629 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
631 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
632 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
633 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
635 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
637 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
638 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
639 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
641 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
644 ** pretty-print has more options.
646 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
647 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
648 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
650 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
652 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
653 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
654 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
656 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
658 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
659 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
661 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
663 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
664 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
667 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
669 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
670 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
671 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
672 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
673 without the soft port blocking.
675 ** New debugging feature: breakpoints.
677 Guile now has breakpoints. For details see the `Debugging Features'
678 chapter in the reference manual.
680 ** Deprecated: undefine
682 There is no replacement for undefine.
684 * The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
685 have been discouraged.
687 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
688 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
689 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
692 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
695 * Changes to the C interface
697 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
698 Scheme values has been added.
700 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
701 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
706 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
707 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
709 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
711 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
712 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
715 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
717 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
718 scm_from_int for ints.
720 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
721 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
722 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
724 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
726 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
727 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
728 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
731 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
733 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
735 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
737 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
738 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
739 following alternatives.
741 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
742 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
743 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
744 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
746 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
747 do the validating for you.
749 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
750 have been discouraged.
752 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
753 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
756 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
758 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
759 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
762 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
764 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
767 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
770 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
772 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
773 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
775 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
776 scm_truncate_number should have.
778 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
779 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
781 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
784 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
785 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
786 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
788 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
789 easier to use from C.
791 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
792 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
794 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
795 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
796 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
799 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
800 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
801 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
802 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
805 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
806 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
807 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
808 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
809 and is thus quite efficient.
811 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
813 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
814 about the character encoding.
816 Replace according to the following table:
818 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
819 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
820 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
821 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
822 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
823 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
824 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
825 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
826 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
828 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
829 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
831 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
833 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
834 now also available to C code.
836 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
838 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
839 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
840 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
842 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
845 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
847 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
848 unceremoniously removed.
850 This implementation exposed the detailes of the tagging system of
851 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
852 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
854 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
855 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
856 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
857 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
858 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
859 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
862 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
864 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
865 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
866 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
867 manual for more details.
869 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
870 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
872 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
873 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
874 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
876 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
878 Migrate according to the following table:
880 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_aray, scm_make_u8vector etc.
881 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
882 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
883 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
884 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
885 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
886 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
888 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
889 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
890 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
891 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
892 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
893 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
894 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
896 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
898 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
899 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
901 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
902 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
903 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
904 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
906 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
908 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
909 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
910 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
912 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
913 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
915 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
916 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
917 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
918 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
920 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
922 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
923 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
924 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
925 prevent a potential memory leak:
934 mem = scm_malloc (100);
935 scm_frame_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY);
937 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
938 SCM_FRAME_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
945 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY, MEM will be freed by
946 SCM_FRAME_END as well.
950 For full documentation, see the node "Frames" in the manual.
952 ** New function scm_frame_free
954 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a frame is left.
955 Thus the call to scm_frame_unwind_handler above could be replaced with
956 simply scm_frame_free (mem).
958 ** New way to block and unblock asyncs
960 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
961 scm_frame_block_asyncs in a 'frame' (see above). Likewise for
962 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_frame_unblock_asyncs.
964 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
966 C code can now use scm_frame_current_<foo>_port in a 'frame' (see
967 above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
969 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
971 C code can now use scm_frame_fluid in a 'frame' (see
972 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
974 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
976 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
977 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
978 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
980 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
982 You should not have used them.
984 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
986 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
987 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
989 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
991 This macro is not intended for public use.
993 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
995 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
997 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
999 Use scm_is_real instead.
1001 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1003 Use scm_is_complex instead.
1005 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
1007 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
1008 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
1010 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
1011 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
1013 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
1014 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
1016 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1018 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1021 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1023 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1024 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1025 to the distribution" above.
1027 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1029 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1030 arguments are now passed directly:
1032 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1034 This is an incompatible change.
1036 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1038 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1039 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1040 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1042 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1043 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1045 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1047 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1049 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1050 function in the init section.
1052 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1054 ** New macros SCM_VECTOR_REF and SCM_VECTOR_SET.
1056 Use these in preference to SCM_VELTS.
1058 ** The SCM_VELTS macros now returns a read-only vector. For writing,
1059 use the new macros SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS or SCM_VECTOR_SET. The use of
1060 SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS is discouraged, though.
1062 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1064 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1065 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1066 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1067 stays roughly constant.
1069 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1070 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1071 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1072 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1073 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1076 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1077 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1078 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1079 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1081 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1083 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1085 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1087 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1088 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1089 initializes a new cell (see below).
1091 ** New functions for memory management
1093 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1094 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1095 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1096 cause aborts in long running programs.
1098 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1099 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1101 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1102 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1103 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1104 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1105 details and for upgrading instructions.
1107 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1108 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1109 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1111 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1113 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1114 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1115 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1116 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1117 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1119 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1120 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1121 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1123 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1124 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1126 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1128 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1129 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1130 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1131 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1132 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1134 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1136 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1139 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1141 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1143 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1145 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1146 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1148 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1150 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1151 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1153 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1155 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1156 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1157 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1158 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1159 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1160 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1161 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1162 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1163 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1164 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1165 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1166 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1167 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1168 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1169 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1170 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1171 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1172 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1173 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1174 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1175 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1176 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1177 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1178 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1179 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1180 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1181 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1182 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1183 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1184 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1185 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1188 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1190 * Changes to the distribution
1192 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1194 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1196 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1197 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1198 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1199 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1200 indicate major changes in Guile.
1202 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1203 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1204 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1205 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1207 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1208 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1209 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1210 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1211 micro version number.
1213 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1215 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1217 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1218 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1220 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1222 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1223 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1224 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1226 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1228 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1229 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1230 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1233 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1235 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1238 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1240 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1241 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1243 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1245 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1246 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1249 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1251 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1254 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1257 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1259 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1261 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1262 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1263 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1265 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1267 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1269 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1272 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1274 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1276 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1278 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1279 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1280 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1282 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1284 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1286 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1287 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1296 See README there for more info.
1298 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1299 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1302 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1304 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1306 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1308 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1309 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1310 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1312 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1314 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1315 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1316 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1318 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1319 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1321 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1324 (oop goops describe)
1326 (oop goops active-slot)
1327 (oop goops composite-slot)
1329 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1330 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1331 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1333 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1335 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1336 in the default environment:
1338 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1339 %read-line write-line
1341 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1342 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1344 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1346 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1349 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1350 can be used for similar functionality.
1352 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1354 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1355 it defines two procedures:
1357 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1359 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1360 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1361 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1364 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1366 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1367 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1368 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1369 write large strings.
1371 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1373 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1374 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1376 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1378 for complete documentation.
1380 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1382 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1383 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1384 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1385 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1387 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1388 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1392 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1393 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1394 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1397 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1400 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1401 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1403 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1404 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1407 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1410 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1412 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1414 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1416 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1418 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1419 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1420 Scheme programs easier.
1422 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1423 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1424 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1425 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1426 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1429 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1430 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1432 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1435 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1437 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1438 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1439 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1442 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1444 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1446 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1447 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1448 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1449 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1450 was also ASCII, for example.
1452 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1454 tag - no replacement.
1455 fseek - replaced by seek.
1456 list* - replaced by cons*.
1458 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1462 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1463 (define m (make-safe-module))
1464 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1465 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1466 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1468 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1470 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1471 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1472 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1474 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1476 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1477 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1478 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1479 from the issues related to the module system.
1481 *** New function: load-extension
1483 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1485 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1487 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1488 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1489 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1491 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1493 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1494 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1495 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1496 support dynamic linking).
1498 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1500 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1501 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1502 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1503 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1506 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1507 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1508 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1509 library and initialize it explicitely.
1511 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1512 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1514 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1516 (define-module (foo bar))
1518 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1520 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1522 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1523 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1525 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1526 (null-environment 5)
1527 (interaction-environment)
1533 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1535 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1536 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1537 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1538 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1540 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1541 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1542 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1543 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1544 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1545 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1546 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1547 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1548 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1549 one eval to the next.
1551 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1552 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1553 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1554 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1555 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1557 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1558 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1559 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1560 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1561 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1562 used in a lexical environment.
1564 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1565 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1566 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1567 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1568 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1569 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1571 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1573 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1574 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1575 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1576 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1577 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1579 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1580 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1581 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1583 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1584 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1586 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1587 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1588 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1590 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1591 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1593 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1594 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1595 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1596 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1599 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1600 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1601 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1602 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1604 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1605 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1606 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1608 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1609 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1610 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1611 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1612 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1614 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1616 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1617 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1618 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1620 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1621 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1622 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1624 See manual for more info.
1626 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1628 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1629 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1630 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1632 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1634 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1635 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1636 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1638 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1639 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1640 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1641 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1643 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1645 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1646 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1648 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1649 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1650 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1651 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1652 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1655 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1656 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1657 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1658 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1659 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1660 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1662 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1663 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1664 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1665 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1666 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1668 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1669 objects are usually permanent.
1671 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1672 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1674 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1676 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1677 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1680 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1684 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1689 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1691 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1692 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1693 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1694 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1696 ** New function `make-object-property'
1698 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
1699 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
1703 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
1704 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
1708 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
1709 source properties eventually.
1711 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
1713 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
1714 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
1715 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
1717 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
1718 will be removed in the next release.
1720 ** New define-module option: pure
1722 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
1727 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
1730 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
1732 Export names NAME1 ...
1734 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
1735 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
1739 (define-module (foo)
1741 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
1744 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
1749 ** New function: object->string OBJ
1751 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
1753 ** New function: port? X
1755 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
1756 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
1758 ** New function: file-port?
1760 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
1762 ** New function: port-for-each proc
1764 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
1765 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
1766 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
1767 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
1768 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
1770 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
1772 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
1773 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
1774 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
1775 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
1776 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
1779 ** New function: close-fdes fd
1781 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
1782 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
1783 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
1784 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
1787 ** New function: crypt password salt
1789 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
1792 ** New function: chroot path
1794 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
1796 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
1798 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
1801 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
1803 Get or set the priority of the running process.
1805 ** New function: getpass prompt
1807 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
1810 ** New function: flock file operation
1812 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
1814 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
1816 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
1819 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
1821 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
1822 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
1823 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
1824 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
1825 of the temporary file.
1827 ** New function: open-input-string string
1829 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
1830 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
1831 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
1833 ** New function: open-output-string
1835 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
1836 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
1838 ** New function: get-output-string
1840 Return the contents of an output string port.
1842 ** New function: identity
1844 Return the argument.
1846 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
1847 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
1849 ** New function: inet-pton family address
1851 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
1852 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
1853 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1856 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
1857 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
1859 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
1861 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
1862 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
1863 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1866 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
1867 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
1868 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
1872 Use `identity' instead.
1878 ** Deprecated: return-it
1882 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
1884 Use `string-length' instead.
1886 ** Deprecated: flags
1888 Use `logior' instead.
1890 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
1892 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
1893 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
1894 port-for-each is more flexible.
1896 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
1897 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
1898 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
1900 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
1902 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
1904 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
1906 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
1908 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
1910 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
1911 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
1913 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
1914 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
1916 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
1917 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
1919 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
1921 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
1922 Removed function: builtin-bindings
1924 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
1925 Use module system operations for all variables.
1927 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
1929 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
1932 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
1934 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
1935 The following bugs have been fixed:
1937 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
1938 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
1941 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
1942 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
1943 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
1945 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
1946 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
1948 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
1949 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
1952 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
1953 The expansion used to be like so:
1955 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
1957 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
1959 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
1961 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
1962 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
1964 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
1966 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
1967 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
1968 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
1972 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
1973 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
1975 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
1980 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
1981 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
1983 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
1984 and `d', other keywords allowed.
1985 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
1987 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
1990 * Changes to the C interface
1992 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
1994 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
1995 with "_t". What a concept.
1997 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
1999 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2001 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2005 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2006 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2008 *** C Functions removed
2010 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2011 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2012 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2013 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2014 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2015 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2016 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2018 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2020 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2022 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2024 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2026 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2027 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2029 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2031 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2034 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2036 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2038 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2040 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2041 Evaluation" in the manual.
2043 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2045 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2046 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2048 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2050 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2051 Constructors" in the manual.
2053 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2055 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2056 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2058 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2060 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2062 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2063 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2064 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2066 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2068 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2070 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2071 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2072 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2075 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2077 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2079 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2080 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2082 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2084 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2085 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2086 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2087 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2089 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2090 scm_primitive_property_ref
2091 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2092 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2094 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2095 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2097 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2099 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2100 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2101 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2102 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2104 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2106 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2107 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2108 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2109 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2110 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2111 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2112 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2114 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2115 scm_remember_upto_here
2117 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2119 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2121 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2122 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2124 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2126 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2128 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2130 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2132 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2134 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2135 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2136 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2137 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2138 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2139 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2141 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2143 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2145 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2146 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2147 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2149 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2151 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2152 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2153 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2155 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2157 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2158 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2161 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2164 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2165 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2168 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2170 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2172 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2174 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2176 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2178 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2180 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2181 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2182 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2183 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2184 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2185 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2186 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2187 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2188 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2189 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2190 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2191 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2192 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2193 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2194 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2196 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2197 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2198 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2199 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2200 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2201 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2202 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2203 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2204 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2205 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2206 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2207 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2208 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2209 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2210 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2211 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2212 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2213 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2214 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2215 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2216 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2217 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2218 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2219 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2220 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2221 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2222 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2223 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2224 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2226 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2228 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2230 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2231 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2233 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2235 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2237 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2239 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2241 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2243 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2245 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2247 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2249 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2252 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2253 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2255 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2257 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2259 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2261 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2263 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2265 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2267 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2269 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2272 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2274 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2276 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2278 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2279 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2281 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2282 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2284 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2286 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2287 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2288 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2290 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2292 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2294 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2295 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2297 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2298 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2299 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2300 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2302 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2303 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2304 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2306 Use the new ones from above instead.
2308 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2310 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2311 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2312 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2314 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2315 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2317 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2318 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2321 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2322 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2324 Use the new functions instead.
2326 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2329 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2331 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2333 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2336 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2338 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2341 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2343 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2346 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2347 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2348 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2350 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2352 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2353 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2355 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2356 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2357 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2358 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2361 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2363 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2364 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2365 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2366 inexact for an exact.
2368 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2369 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2370 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2373 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2374 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2375 accept an inexact argument.
2377 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2378 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2380 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2383 ** New number validation macros:
2384 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2388 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2390 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2391 scm_unprotect_object.
2393 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2395 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2397 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2400 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2402 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2406 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2408 * Changes to the distribution
2410 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2412 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2413 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2414 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2415 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2416 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2417 obtain these programs.
2418 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2419 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2421 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2422 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2423 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2424 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2425 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2427 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2428 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2429 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2430 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2434 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2437 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2438 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2439 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2440 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2442 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2444 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2446 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2447 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2449 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2450 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2452 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2453 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2455 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2456 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2457 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2458 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2460 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2462 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2466 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2467 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2469 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2471 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2472 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2474 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2475 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2476 number of objects of that kind.
2478 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2480 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2481 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2482 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2483 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2484 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2486 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2488 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2490 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2492 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2495 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2497 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2499 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2501 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2503 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2505 ** New command line option --debug
2507 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2509 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2511 ** New help facility
2513 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2514 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2515 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2516 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2517 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2518 (help) gives this text
2520 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2521 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2523 Examples: (help help)
2525 (help "output-string")
2527 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2529 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2531 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2532 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2535 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2536 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2537 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2540 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2541 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2542 use absolute filenames when possible.
2544 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2545 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2546 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2549 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2551 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2552 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2553 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2554 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2556 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2558 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2560 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2561 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2562 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2564 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2565 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2566 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2568 (read-enable 'positions)
2569 (debug-enable 'debug)
2571 ** Backtraces in scripts
2573 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2577 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2579 at the top of the script.
2581 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2582 The second enables backtraces.)
2584 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2586 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2587 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2588 substantially faster than before.
2590 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2591 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2593 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2594 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2596 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2598 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2599 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2600 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2602 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2603 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2604 when this hook is run in the future.
2606 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2607 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2609 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2611 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2612 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2615 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2616 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2617 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2619 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2620 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2622 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2623 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2625 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2626 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2627 in order not to need further allocation.)
2629 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2632 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2633 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2634 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2635 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2637 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2639 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2642 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2644 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2647 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2648 GC in percent of total heap size
2651 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2652 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2654 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2656 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2657 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2659 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2661 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2662 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2664 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2666 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2667 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2671 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2672 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2674 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2676 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2678 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2680 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2682 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2684 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2685 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2687 (simple-format port message . args)
2688 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2689 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2690 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2691 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2692 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2693 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2694 Does not add a trailing newline."
2696 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
2698 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
2699 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
2701 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
2702 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
2704 ** Deprecated: list*
2706 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
2708 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
2710 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
2711 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
2713 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
2714 is returned as result.
2716 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
2718 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
2720 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
2722 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
2723 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
2726 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
2728 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
2730 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
2731 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
2733 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2735 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
2737 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
2739 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2741 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
2743 Thanks to Greg Badros!
2745 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2747 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2748 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
2749 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
2751 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
2754 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
2756 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
2757 the readability of argument checking.
2759 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
2761 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
2763 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
2765 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
2766 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
2767 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
2768 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
2769 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
2770 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
2771 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
2773 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
2775 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
2777 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
2778 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
2780 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
2782 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
2783 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
2786 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
2788 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
2789 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
2790 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
2792 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
2793 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
2794 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
2796 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
2797 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
2798 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
2799 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
2800 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
2801 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
2802 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
2804 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
2805 scm_end_input (object);
2806 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
2807 ptob->flush (object);
2809 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
2810 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
2813 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
2815 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
2817 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
2818 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
2819 removed in a future version.
2821 ** The format of error message strings has changed
2823 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
2824 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
2825 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
2826 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
2828 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
2829 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
2831 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
2834 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
2836 in your configure.in.
2838 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
2843 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
2849 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
2851 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
2855 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
2856 (define make-message string-append)
2858 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
2860 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
2864 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
2869 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
2873 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
2875 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
2876 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
2878 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
2880 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
2881 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
2882 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
2883 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
2884 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
2885 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
2887 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
2888 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
2889 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
2891 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
2892 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
2893 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
2896 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
2897 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
2898 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
2899 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
2900 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
2902 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
2903 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
2904 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
2905 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
2906 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
2907 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
2908 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
2910 Destructors are not yet implemented.
2912 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
2913 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
2914 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
2916 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
2917 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
2918 KEY in the calling thread.
2920 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
2921 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
2922 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
2923 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
2924 associated with the key.
2926 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
2928 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
2929 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
2931 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
2933 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
2934 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
2935 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
2937 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
2939 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
2940 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
2942 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
2944 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
2946 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
2947 returned is undefined.
2949 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
2950 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
2951 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
2953 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
2954 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
2955 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
2957 ** New C level GC hooks
2959 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
2961 scm_before_gc_c_hook
2964 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
2965 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
2966 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
2968 scm_before_mark_c_hook
2969 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
2970 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
2972 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
2973 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
2976 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
2978 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
2979 allocation parameters
2981 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
2982 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
2983 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
2987 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
2988 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
2989 scm_default_max_segment_size
2991 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
2993 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
2994 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
2996 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
2998 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
2999 object and count on the object being protected until
3000 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3002 The functions also have better time complexity.
3004 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3005 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3006 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3007 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3008 are no longer needed.
3010 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3012 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3013 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3014 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3015 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3017 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3019 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3021 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3023 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3024 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3025 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3026 until this issue has been settled.
3028 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3030 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3032 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3035 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3037 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3039 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3040 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3041 descriptors were checked.
3043 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3044 atomically written to a pipe.
3046 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3047 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3048 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3049 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3050 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3051 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3052 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3055 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3056 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3057 is changed without calling tzset.
3059 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3061 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3062 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3063 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3065 (define write-network-long
3066 (lambda (value port)
3067 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3068 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3069 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3071 (define read-network-long
3073 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3074 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3075 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3077 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3078 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3080 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3081 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3082 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3083 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3085 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3086 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3087 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3088 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3092 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3094 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3098 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3099 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3100 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3106 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3107 for a description of available commands.
3109 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3110 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3111 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3113 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3115 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3116 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3118 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3120 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3122 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3123 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3124 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3125 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3126 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3127 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3130 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3132 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3133 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3134 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3135 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3137 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3138 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3140 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3142 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3144 ** Readline support has changed again.
3146 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3147 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3148 to activate readline is now
3150 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3153 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3155 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3156 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3157 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3160 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3161 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3162 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3165 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3166 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3167 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3168 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3169 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3170 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3172 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3173 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3175 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3177 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3178 object it receives is the same string passed to
3179 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3180 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3181 string, not the suffix.
3183 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3184 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3185 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3187 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3189 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3190 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3191 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3192 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3195 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3197 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3199 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3200 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3201 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3202 appear from left to right.
3204 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3207 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3209 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3210 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3212 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3216 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3218 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3220 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3222 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3223 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3224 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3226 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3228 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3230 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3232 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3235 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3237 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3238 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3239 mentioning it here anyway.
3241 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3243 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3244 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3245 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3246 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3249 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3251 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3253 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3255 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3256 otherwise return #f.
3258 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3260 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3261 returned by `opendir'.
3263 ** New function: using-readline?
3265 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3267 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3269 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3270 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3272 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3274 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3276 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3277 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3278 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3280 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3282 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3283 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3285 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3287 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3288 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3289 documentation slots are not yet used.
3291 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3293 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3294 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3295 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3300 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3301 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3302 (string-append x y))
3304 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3305 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3307 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3308 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3309 be made in a clean way.]
3311 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3313 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3315 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3317 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3318 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3320 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3322 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3324 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3326 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3328 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3329 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3330 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3331 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3334 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3336 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3338 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3340 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3342 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3343 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3345 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3347 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3349 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3351 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3353 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3354 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3355 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3356 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3357 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3358 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3360 This should not make any difference for most users.
3362 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3364 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3365 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3367 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3369 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3370 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3371 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3372 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3373 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3375 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3377 It is now replaced by:
3379 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3381 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3382 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3384 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3386 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3387 This might change when we get the new module system.
3389 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3393 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3395 * Changes to mailing lists
3397 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3399 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3402 * Changes to the distribution
3404 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3406 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3407 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3408 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3409 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3410 you explicitly specify it.
3412 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3413 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3414 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3415 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3416 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3419 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3420 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3421 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3422 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3424 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3425 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3426 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3429 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3431 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3434 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3436 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3438 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3439 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3440 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3441 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3443 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3444 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3447 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3449 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3450 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3451 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3452 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3453 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3454 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3455 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3456 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3468 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3469 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3470 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3471 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3472 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3477 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3478 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3486 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3491 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3492 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3495 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3496 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3497 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3498 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3500 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3502 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3504 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3505 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3507 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3509 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3511 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3512 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3514 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3517 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3519 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3521 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3523 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3525 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3527 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3529 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3530 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3531 when the hook was created.
3533 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3534 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3535 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3536 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3537 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3538 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3539 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3540 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3541 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3543 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3544 the dlopen family of functions.
3546 ** New function `provided?'
3548 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3549 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3550 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3551 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3553 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3555 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3556 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3557 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3558 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3561 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3562 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3563 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3564 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3566 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3567 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3568 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3571 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3572 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3573 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3574 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3575 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3576 but with the flag set.
3578 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3580 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3581 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3583 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3584 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3585 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3586 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3587 available Scheme format implementations.
3589 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3590 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3591 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3592 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3593 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3594 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3595 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3596 output is to the current error port if available by the
3597 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3600 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3601 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3602 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3603 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3604 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3605 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3606 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3607 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3609 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3610 be executed at a time.
3613 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3615 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3616 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3617 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3619 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3620 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3621 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3622 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3623 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3624 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3625 general form of a directive is:
3627 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3629 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3631 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3633 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3634 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3635 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3638 Any (print as `display' does).
3642 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3646 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3650 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3656 print number sign always.
3659 print comma separated.
3661 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3667 print number sign always.
3670 print comma separated.
3672 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3678 print number sign always.
3681 print comma separated.
3683 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3689 print number sign always.
3692 print comma separated.
3694 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
3699 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
3703 print a number as a Roman numeral.
3706 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
3709 print a number as an ordinal English number.
3712 print a number as a cardinal English number.
3717 prints `y' and `ies'.
3720 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3723 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3728 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
3732 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
3735 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
3736 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
3738 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3741 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
3742 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
3744 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3747 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
3749 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
3751 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3754 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
3756 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
3758 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3761 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
3764 The sign appears before the padding.
3772 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
3774 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
3779 print N page separators.
3789 newline is ignored, white space left.
3792 newline is left, white space ignored.
3797 relative tabulation.
3803 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
3805 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
3808 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
3810 converts by `string-capitalize'.
3813 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
3816 converts by `string-upcase'.
3819 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
3821 jumps N arguments forward.
3824 jumps 1 argument backward.
3827 jumps N arguments backward.
3830 jumps to the 0th argument.
3833 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
3835 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
3836 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
3838 take argument from N.
3841 true test conditional.
3844 if-else-then conditional.
3850 default clause follows.
3853 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
3855 at most N iterations.
3858 args from next arg (a list of lists).
3861 args from the rest of arguments.
3864 args from the rest args (lists).
3875 aborts if N <= M <= K
3877 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3880 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3883 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3889 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
3891 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
3893 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
3894 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
3895 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
3896 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
3897 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
3898 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
3902 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
3906 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
3912 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
3915 Print a `#\space' character
3917 print N `#\space' characters.
3920 Print a `#\tab' character
3922 print N `#\tab' characters.
3925 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
3926 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
3927 must be a positive decimal number.
3930 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3931 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3932 be processed by `read'.
3935 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3936 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3937 be processed by `read'.
3940 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
3943 prints format version.
3946 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
3947 and format it accordingly.
3949 *** Configuration Variables
3951 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
3952 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
3953 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
3954 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
3957 format:symbol-case-conv
3958 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
3959 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
3960 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
3961 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
3962 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
3964 format:iobj-case-conv
3965 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
3966 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
3969 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
3972 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
3978 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
3979 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
3980 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
3981 `format' padding style.
3984 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
3985 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
3986 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
3987 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
3991 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
3992 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
3993 directive parameters or modifiers)).
3996 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
3997 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
3998 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
3999 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4000 parameters or modifiers)).
4003 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4005 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4007 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4008 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4010 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4011 string-downcase! functions.
4013 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4014 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4016 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4019 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4022 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4023 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4025 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4027 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4028 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4030 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4031 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4032 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4033 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4034 would if STRING were input.
4036 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4038 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4039 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4040 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4041 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4044 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4046 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4047 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4050 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4052 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4053 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4055 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4056 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4058 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4059 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4060 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4061 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4063 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4064 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4066 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4067 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4068 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4070 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4071 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4073 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4074 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4075 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4076 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4077 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4079 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4080 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4081 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4082 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4083 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4084 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4086 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4087 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4088 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4091 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4092 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4093 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4094 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4095 the following grammar:
4096 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4097 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4098 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4099 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4100 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4101 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4102 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4103 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4104 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4105 last option in its combination)
4107 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4108 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4109 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4110 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4112 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4113 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4114 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4116 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4117 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4118 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4120 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4121 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4122 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4123 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4124 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4125 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4126 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4127 ordinary argument strings.
4129 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4130 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4131 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4132 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4134 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4135 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4137 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4138 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4139 - a required option is omitted
4140 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4141 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4142 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4143 - an option predicate fails
4148 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4151 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4152 (verbose (required? #f)
4155 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4156 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4157 (predicate ,string?))))
4159 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4160 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4162 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4163 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4164 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4165 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4168 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4170 It will be removed in a few releases.
4172 ** New syntax: lambda*
4173 ** New syntax: define*
4174 ** New syntax: define*-public
4175 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4176 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4177 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4179 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4180 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4181 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4182 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4183 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4185 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4186 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4187 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4189 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4191 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4192 and examples for `lambda*':
4195 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4197 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4198 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4199 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4200 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4201 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4202 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4203 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4204 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4206 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4208 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4209 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4210 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4211 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4213 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4214 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4215 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4216 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4217 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4218 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4219 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4220 and until the procedure is called.
4222 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4224 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4225 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4226 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4227 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4228 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4229 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4230 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4231 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4232 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4233 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4235 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4236 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4237 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4238 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4241 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4243 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4244 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4245 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4246 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4248 ** New syntax: and-let*
4249 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4251 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4252 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4253 (<variable> <expression>)
4256 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4257 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4258 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4261 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4262 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4263 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4264 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4265 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4266 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4267 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4269 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4270 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4271 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4272 shadow earlier bindings.
4274 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4276 ** New sorting functions
4278 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4279 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4280 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4281 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4283 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4284 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4287 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4288 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4289 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4291 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4292 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4293 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4294 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4296 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4297 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4298 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4299 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4300 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4303 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4304 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4305 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4306 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4307 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4308 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4310 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4311 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4312 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4314 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4315 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4316 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4319 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4320 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4321 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4323 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4324 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4326 ** New built-in random number support
4328 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4329 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4330 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4331 returned have a uniform distribution.
4333 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4334 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4335 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4336 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4337 effect of the `random' operation.
4339 *** New variable: *random-state*
4340 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4341 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4342 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4343 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4344 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4347 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4348 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4349 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4350 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4351 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4353 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4354 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4355 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4356 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4357 initialized using SEED.
4359 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4360 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4361 range between 0 and 1.
4363 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4364 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4365 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4366 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4367 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4368 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4369 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4371 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4372 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4373 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4374 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4375 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4376 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4378 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4379 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4380 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4381 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4383 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4384 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4385 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4386 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4388 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4389 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4390 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4392 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4394 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4397 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4398 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4401 ** New function: make-guardian
4402 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4403 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4404 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4405 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4406 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4408 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4409 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4410 one object if at all.
4412 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4413 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4414 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4416 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4417 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4418 read again in last-in first-out order.
4420 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4421 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4423 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4425 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4426 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4427 file position is used.
4429 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4430 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4431 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4433 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4434 redefined using seek.
4436 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4437 size is not supplied.
4439 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4440 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4442 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4443 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4445 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4447 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4448 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4449 and returns the contents as a single string.
4451 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4452 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4453 lists in serial order.
4455 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4456 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4457 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4459 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4460 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4461 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4462 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4464 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4465 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4466 and #f if an error occured.
4468 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4470 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4471 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4472 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4473 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4475 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4477 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4480 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4482 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4485 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4489 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4490 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4492 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4493 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4497 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4499 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4501 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4502 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4504 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4506 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4507 might change when we get the new module system.
4509 ** The smob interface
4511 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4512 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4514 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4516 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4520 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4521 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4522 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4523 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4524 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4525 will be freed by the default free function.
4527 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4528 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4529 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4530 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4532 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4533 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4534 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4535 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4537 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4539 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4540 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4544 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4545 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4546 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4548 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4549 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4550 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4551 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4553 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4554 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4555 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4557 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4558 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4559 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4560 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4562 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4563 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4564 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4566 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4570 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4572 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4573 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4574 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4576 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4577 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4578 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4580 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4581 a string port's buffer.
4583 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4584 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4585 function pointers which together define the current random number
4586 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4587 number library functions.
4589 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4592 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4593 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4596 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4597 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4599 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4600 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4602 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4603 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4606 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4607 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4608 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4609 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4611 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4612 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4613 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4614 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4615 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4616 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4617 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4619 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4620 by libguile and the application.
4622 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4623 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4624 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4625 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4627 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4628 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4630 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4631 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4632 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4634 ** Random number library functions
4635 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4636 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4637 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4639 The default random state is stored in:
4641 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4642 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4643 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4648 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4650 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4651 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4652 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4653 isn't a random state.
4655 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4656 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4658 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4659 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4660 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4661 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4663 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4664 Return 32 random bits.
4666 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4667 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4669 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4670 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4672 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4673 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4675 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4676 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4678 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4679 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4680 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4684 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4686 * Changes to the distribution
4688 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4689 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4690 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4693 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4694 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4695 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
4697 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
4698 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
4699 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
4700 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
4703 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
4704 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
4705 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
4707 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4709 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
4711 *** Function: batch-mode?
4713 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
4716 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
4718 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
4719 case has not been implemented.
4721 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
4722 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
4723 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
4726 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
4727 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
4729 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
4731 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4733 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
4735 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
4736 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
4739 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
4740 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
4741 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
4742 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
4745 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
4747 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
4748 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
4749 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
4750 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
4751 find those libraries.
4753 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
4754 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
4757 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
4759 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
4760 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
4761 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
4762 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
4764 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
4765 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
4766 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
4770 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
4772 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
4773 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
4774 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
4777 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
4778 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
4779 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
4780 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
4782 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
4783 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
4786 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
4787 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
4788 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
4789 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
4790 compiler where to find the libraries.
4792 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
4793 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
4794 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
4796 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
4797 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
4798 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
4799 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
4800 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
4804 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4806 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
4807 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
4808 internationalization support.
4810 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
4811 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
4812 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
4813 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
4814 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
4816 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
4817 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
4818 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
4819 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
4820 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
4822 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
4823 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
4824 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
4825 any GNU mirror site.
4827 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
4829 ** New function: add-history STRING
4830 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
4831 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
4832 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
4834 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
4836 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
4837 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
4838 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
4841 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
4842 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
4843 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
4845 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
4847 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
4850 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
4851 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
4854 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
4855 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
4856 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
4857 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
4858 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
4859 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
4861 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
4862 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
4863 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
4864 of the form mentioned above.
4866 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
4867 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
4868 returned in the special `rest' list.
4870 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
4871 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
4873 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
4875 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
4877 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
4879 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
4880 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
4881 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
4882 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
4883 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
4884 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
4885 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
4886 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
4889 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
4891 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
4893 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
4894 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
4897 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
4898 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
4899 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
4903 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
4904 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
4905 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
4906 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
4907 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
4908 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
4909 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
4910 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
4913 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
4915 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
4916 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
4917 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
4919 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
4921 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
4922 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
4924 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
4925 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
4926 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
4928 Why do we have this function?
4929 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
4930 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
4931 primitive, and display it differently, and
4932 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
4933 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
4936 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
4937 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
4940 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
4941 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
4942 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
4943 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
4945 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
4946 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
4949 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
4950 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
4952 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
4954 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
4955 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
4956 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
4957 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
4958 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
4959 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
4960 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
4963 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
4965 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
4966 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
4968 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
4969 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
4970 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
4971 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
4972 properly continue the print chain.
4974 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
4975 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
4976 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
4977 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
4978 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
4979 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
4980 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
4981 print-state, it is simply ignored.
4983 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
4984 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
4985 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
4986 safest to not check for these pairs.
4988 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
4989 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
4990 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
4991 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
4993 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
4995 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
4996 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
4998 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5000 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5002 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5003 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5004 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5006 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5007 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5008 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5010 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5011 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5012 the following functions and macros:
5014 Function: make-fluid
5016 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5017 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5018 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5019 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5020 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5022 Function: fluid? OBJ
5024 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5026 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5027 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5029 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5030 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5032 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5034 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5035 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5036 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5037 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5038 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5039 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5040 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5042 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5044 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5045 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5046 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5047 should evaluate to a fluid.
5049 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5051 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5052 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5053 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5054 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5055 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5057 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5060 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5062 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5064 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5066 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5069 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5070 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5071 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5072 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5073 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5076 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5077 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5078 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5080 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5081 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5082 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5084 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5085 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5086 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5087 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5089 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5090 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5091 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5092 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5094 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5095 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5096 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5097 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5099 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5100 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5101 their revealed counts set to zero.
5103 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5104 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5106 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5107 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5109 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5110 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5112 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5113 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5114 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5116 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5117 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5118 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5120 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5121 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5122 default environment inherited by child processes.
5124 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5125 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5126 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5128 The return value is unspecified.
5130 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5131 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5132 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5133 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5134 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5136 The return value is unspecified.
5138 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5139 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5147 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5148 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5151 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5154 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5155 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5156 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5158 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5159 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5160 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5161 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5164 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5165 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5167 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5168 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5169 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5170 the `environ' procedure.
5172 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5173 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5176 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5177 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5179 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5180 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5181 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5182 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5184 *** procedure: times
5185 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5186 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5187 return a selected component:
5190 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5194 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5197 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5201 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5202 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5206 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5207 terminated child processes.
5209 ** Removed: list-length
5210 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5211 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5213 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5215 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5217 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5219 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5220 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5221 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5222 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5224 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5225 extra complexity it introduces.
5227 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5228 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5230 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5231 variable to any non-empty value.
5233 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5234 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5236 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5238 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5239 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5241 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5243 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5244 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5246 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5248 ** vector handling routines
5250 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5251 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5252 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5253 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5254 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5256 ** pair and list routines
5258 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5261 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5263 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5266 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5268 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5270 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5271 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5272 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5273 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5274 site-specific initialization code.
5276 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5277 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5278 initialization processes.
5280 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5281 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5282 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5283 initialized properly.
5285 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5286 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5287 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5289 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5290 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5291 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5292 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5293 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5295 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5297 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5298 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5299 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5300 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5301 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5303 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5304 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5305 which look like this:
5308 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5310 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5311 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5314 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5315 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5318 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5320 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5321 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5322 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5324 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5325 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5326 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5327 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5328 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5330 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5331 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5333 int (*free) (SCM port);
5334 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5335 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5336 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5340 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5341 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5342 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5344 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5347 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5348 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5349 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5351 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5352 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5353 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5356 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5360 struct timeval *timeout);
5362 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5363 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5364 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5365 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5366 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5367 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5369 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5370 scm_catch_body_t body,
5372 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5375 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5376 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5377 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5378 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5379 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5380 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5382 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5384 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5387 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5388 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5389 spawning threads from application C code.
5391 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5392 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5393 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5394 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5395 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5396 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5398 ** Removed functions:
5400 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5401 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5403 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5405 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5406 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5408 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5410 ** mbstrings are now removed
5412 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5413 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5415 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5417 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5418 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5419 their new names and arguments:
5421 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5422 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5423 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5424 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5427 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5429 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5431 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5434 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5436 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5437 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5438 pass a #f arg to catch.
5440 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5442 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5443 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5446 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5447 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5448 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5449 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5450 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5451 reclaim its storage.
5453 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5454 worrying that some other function you call will call
5455 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5456 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5457 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5458 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5461 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5463 * Changes to the distribution
5465 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5466 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5469 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5470 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5472 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5473 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5475 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5477 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5478 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5479 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5481 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5483 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5484 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5485 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5486 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5487 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5488 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5490 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5491 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5492 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5495 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5496 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5497 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5498 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5500 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5501 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5502 libraries to your link command:
5504 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5505 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5506 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5507 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5509 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5510 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5511 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5513 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5515 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5516 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5519 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5521 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5522 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5523 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5524 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5525 searched is system dependent.
5527 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5529 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5531 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5533 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5534 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5536 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5538 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5539 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5540 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5541 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5542 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5545 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5547 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5548 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5549 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5550 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5551 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5553 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5555 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5556 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5558 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5560 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5561 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5562 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5565 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5567 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5568 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5569 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5570 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5572 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5573 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5575 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5577 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5578 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5580 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5582 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5583 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5591 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5593 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5594 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5595 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5596 a more informative way.
5598 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5599 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5600 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5601 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5602 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5603 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5605 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5606 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5609 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5610 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5611 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5614 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5615 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5616 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5617 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5618 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5619 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5621 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5622 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5623 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5624 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5627 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5628 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5629 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5630 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5631 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5632 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5634 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5635 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5636 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5637 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5638 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5640 *** regexp functions
5642 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5643 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5644 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5646 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5647 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5648 with SCSH regular expressions.
5650 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5651 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5652 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5653 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5655 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5656 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5657 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5658 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5660 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5661 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5662 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5663 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5664 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5665 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5667 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5668 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5669 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5670 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5671 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5673 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5675 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5676 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5677 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5678 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5680 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5681 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5682 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5684 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5685 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5687 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5690 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5691 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5692 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5694 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5695 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5696 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
5698 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
5699 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
5700 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
5701 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
5702 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
5705 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5707 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
5708 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
5709 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
5710 used when different portions of a string are passed to
5711 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
5712 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
5714 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
5715 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
5716 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
5718 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
5719 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
5722 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
5723 and replace them with the contents of another string.
5725 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
5726 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
5727 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
5728 may be one of the following arguments:
5730 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
5732 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
5734 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
5735 the regexp match is written.
5737 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
5738 following the regexp match is written.
5740 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
5741 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
5744 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
5745 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
5746 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
5747 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
5748 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
5749 which should be matched against this regular expression.
5751 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
5754 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
5755 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
5756 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
5757 written out to PORT.
5759 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
5760 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
5761 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
5762 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
5763 will return after processing a single match.
5765 *** Match Structures
5767 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
5768 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
5769 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
5770 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
5771 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
5772 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
5775 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
5776 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
5777 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
5778 information about the original target string that was matched against a
5779 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
5781 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
5782 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
5783 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
5785 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
5786 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
5787 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
5788 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
5789 number N did not match, return `#f'.
5791 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
5792 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
5794 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
5795 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
5797 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
5798 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
5800 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
5801 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
5803 **** Function: match:count MATCH
5804 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
5805 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
5806 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
5808 **** Function: match:string MATCH
5809 Return the original TARGET string.
5811 *** Backslash Escapes
5813 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
5814 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
5815 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
5816 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
5817 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
5818 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
5820 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
5821 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
5822 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
5823 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
5824 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
5825 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
5826 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
5827 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
5829 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
5830 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
5831 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
5832 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
5833 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
5834 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
5835 each match a single backslash in the target string.
5837 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
5838 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
5839 return the resulting string.
5841 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
5842 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
5843 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
5844 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
5845 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
5846 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
5847 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
5848 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
5849 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
5850 translated to the single character `*'.
5852 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
5853 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
5854 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
5855 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
5856 consecutive backslashes:
5858 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
5860 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
5861 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
5862 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
5864 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
5865 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
5866 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
5867 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
5868 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
5869 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
5871 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
5873 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
5874 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
5875 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
5876 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
5877 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
5878 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
5879 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
5880 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
5881 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
5882 cumbersome escape syntax.
5884 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5886 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5888 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5890 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
5893 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
5895 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
5897 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
5900 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
5901 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
5902 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
5903 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
5904 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
5906 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
5907 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
5908 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
5909 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
5910 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
5911 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
5912 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
5915 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
5916 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
5917 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
5920 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
5921 `force-output' on every port open for output.
5923 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
5924 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
5925 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
5926 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
5927 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
5928 installed, you can say:
5930 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
5933 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5935 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
5936 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
5937 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
5938 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
5939 new dynamic roots and threads.
5942 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
5944 * Changes to the distribution.
5946 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
5948 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
5949 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
5950 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
5951 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
5952 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
5953 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
5954 programming language. These are packaged together because the
5955 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
5957 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
5960 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
5961 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
5966 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5968 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
5969 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
5971 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
5972 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
5973 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
5974 the (command-line) function.
5975 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
5976 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
5977 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
5979 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
5980 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
5981 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
5982 command line arguments
5983 -ds do -s script at this point
5984 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
5985 -h, --help display this help and exit
5986 -v, --version display version information and exit
5987 \ read arguments from following script lines
5989 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
5990 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
5992 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5995 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5999 (main (command-line))
6001 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6003 ekko a speckled gecko
6005 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6006 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6007 following list of command-line arguments:
6009 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6011 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6012 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6013 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6014 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6015 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6017 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6019 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6021 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6022 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6025 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6026 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6027 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6028 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6030 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6031 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6032 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6033 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6035 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6039 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6043 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6045 ekko a speckled gecko
6047 Unix expands this into
6049 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6051 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6052 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6054 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6056 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6057 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6059 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6060 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6061 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6062 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6063 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6064 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6065 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6066 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6067 it only terminates the argument list.)
6068 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6069 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6070 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6071 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6072 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6073 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6074 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6075 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6077 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6079 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6080 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6081 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6082 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6083 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6085 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6086 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6087 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6089 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6091 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6092 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6093 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6094 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6097 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6098 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6099 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6101 * Changes to Scheme functions
6103 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6104 and disabled by default.
6106 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6107 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6108 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6109 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6111 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6113 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6115 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6116 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6118 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6119 (read-set! keywords #f)
6121 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6122 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6123 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6126 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6127 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6128 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6131 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6132 support for Scheme functions.
6134 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6135 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6136 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6137 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6140 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6141 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6142 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6145 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6146 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6147 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6150 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6151 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6152 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6153 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6154 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6155 display the result as a prompt.
6156 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6158 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6159 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6160 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6163 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6164 procedure of zero arguments.
6166 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6167 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6168 argument is bound in the current module.
6170 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6171 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6172 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6173 public bindings into the current module.
6175 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6176 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6178 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6179 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6181 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6182 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6184 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6185 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6187 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6188 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6190 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6191 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6192 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6193 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6194 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6196 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6197 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6198 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6199 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6201 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6204 ** Changes to I/O functions
6206 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6207 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6208 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6210 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6211 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6212 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6214 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6215 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6217 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6218 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6219 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6220 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6222 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6224 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6225 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6227 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6228 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6229 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6230 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6231 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6234 'trim omit delimiter from result
6235 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6236 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6237 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6239 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6241 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6242 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6244 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6245 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6246 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6247 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6248 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6250 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6251 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6252 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6254 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6255 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6256 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6257 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6259 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6260 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6262 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6263 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6265 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6267 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6268 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6269 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6270 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6271 a delimiting character.
6272 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6274 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6275 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6276 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6277 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6278 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6279 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6281 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6282 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6284 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6285 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6286 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6288 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6289 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6290 the array to read and write.
6292 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6293 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6296 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6298 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6301 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6302 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6303 Values for COMMAND are:
6305 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6306 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6307 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6308 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6309 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6310 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6311 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6312 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6314 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6316 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6317 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6318 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6319 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6320 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6321 corresponding return set will be the same.
6323 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6326 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6327 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6328 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6329 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6330 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6331 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6332 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6333 special file being created.
6335 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6336 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6338 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6339 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6340 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6341 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6342 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6343 and originating address.
6345 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6346 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6347 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6349 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6352 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6353 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6356 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6357 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6358 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6359 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6360 this function returns #f.
6362 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6363 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6364 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6367 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6368 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6369 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6372 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6373 a valid STATUS value.
6375 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6377 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6378 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6380 Component Accessor Setter
6381 ========================= ============ ============
6382 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6383 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6384 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6385 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6386 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6387 year tm:year set-tm:year
6388 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6389 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6390 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6391 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6392 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6394 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6395 describing the host system:
6398 ============================================== ================
6399 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6400 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6401 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6402 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6403 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6405 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6406 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6407 system's user database:
6410 ====================== =================
6411 user name passwd:name
6412 user password passwd:passwd
6415 real name passwd:gecos
6416 home directory passwd:dir
6417 shell program passwd:shell
6419 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6420 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6421 system's group database:
6424 ======================= ============
6425 group name group:name
6426 group password group:passwd
6428 group members group:mem
6430 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6431 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6435 ========================= ===============
6436 official name of host hostent:name
6437 alias list hostent:aliases
6438 host address type hostent:addrtype
6439 length of address hostent:length
6440 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6442 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6443 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6447 ========================= ===============
6448 official name of net netent:name
6449 alias list netent:aliases
6450 net number type netent:addrtype
6451 net number netent:net
6453 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6454 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6458 ========================= ===============
6459 official protocol name protoent:name
6460 alias list protoent:aliases
6461 protocol number protoent:proto
6463 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6464 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6468 ========================= ===============
6469 official service name servent:name
6470 alias list servent:aliases
6471 port number servent:port
6472 protocol to use servent:proto
6474 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6475 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6478 ======================================== ===============
6479 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6480 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6481 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6482 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6484 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6485 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6486 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6488 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6489 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6491 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6492 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6494 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6495 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6497 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6499 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6501 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6502 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6503 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6505 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6506 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6507 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6508 return the remaining characters as a string.
6510 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6511 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6512 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6514 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6516 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6518 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6521 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6524 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6525 and returns the array
6527 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6528 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6529 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6531 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6533 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6534 symbol's value from C code:
6536 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6537 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6538 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6539 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6541 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6542 without assigning them a value.
6544 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6545 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6546 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6548 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6549 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6550 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6552 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6553 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6555 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6556 doesn't actually care about that.
6558 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6559 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6560 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6562 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6563 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6564 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6565 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6566 which we have just created and initialized.
6568 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6569 should one occur. We call it like this:
6570 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6572 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6573 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6574 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6575 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6576 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6577 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6580 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6581 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6582 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6583 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6584 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6585 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6586 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6589 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6590 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6591 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6592 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6593 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6596 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6597 scm_internal_catch, except:
6599 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6600 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6601 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6602 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6605 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6606 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6607 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6609 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6610 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6611 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6612 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6615 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6616 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6617 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6619 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6620 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6621 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6622 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6623 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6625 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6626 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6627 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6629 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6630 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6631 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6633 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6634 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6636 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6637 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6638 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6641 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6642 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6643 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6644 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6645 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6646 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6647 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6650 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6651 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6653 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6654 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6655 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6656 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6657 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6660 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6661 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6663 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6664 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6667 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6668 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6670 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6673 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6674 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6675 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6676 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6677 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6678 given the following arguments:
6680 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6682 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6684 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6686 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6689 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6690 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6691 command-line arguments.
6693 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6694 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6695 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6696 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
6697 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
6698 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
6701 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6704 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
6705 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
6707 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
6708 rearranged slightly. They are now:
6710 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6711 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6712 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
6713 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
6715 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6716 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6718 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6719 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
6720 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6721 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
6723 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6724 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6726 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
6727 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
6729 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
6731 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
6732 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
6733 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
6736 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
6737 returns a port instead of an FD object.
6739 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
6740 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
6745 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
6748 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
6750 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
6751 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
6752 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
6753 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
6755 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
6757 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
6759 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
6760 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
6761 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
6762 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
6763 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
6764 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
6765 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
6766 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
6767 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
6768 for more information.
6770 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
6771 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
6773 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
6774 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
6775 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
6776 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
6777 following two lines at the top of the file:
6779 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6782 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
6783 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
6784 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
6786 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
6788 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6790 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
6793 (display (car args))
6794 (if (pair? (cdr args))
6796 (loop (cdr args)))))
6799 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
6800 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
6801 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
6802 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
6803 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
6804 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
6808 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
6811 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
6814 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
6816 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
6817 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
6818 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
6819 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
6820 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
6823 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
6824 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
6825 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
6826 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
6827 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
6830 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
6833 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
6834 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
6835 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
6838 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
6839 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
6840 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
6842 to see a backtrace, and
6843 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
6844 to see them by default.
6848 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
6850 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
6852 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
6853 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
6856 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
6857 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
6858 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
6859 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
6862 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
6863 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
6864 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
6865 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
6866 functions which inspired them.
6868 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
6869 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
6873 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
6875 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
6877 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
6878 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
6881 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
6882 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
6883 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
6885 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
6886 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
6887 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
6888 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
6889 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
6891 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
6893 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
6894 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
6895 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
6898 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
6901 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
6903 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
6904 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
6905 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
6906 above should serve their purposes.
6908 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
6909 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
6910 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
6911 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
6913 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
6916 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
6917 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
6918 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
6919 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
6921 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
6922 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
6923 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
6924 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
6926 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
6927 for the `read' function.
6930 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
6931 to that of `integer?'.
6933 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
6934 use the R4RS names for these functions.
6936 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
6937 it simply returns the object's property list.
6939 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
6940 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
6941 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
6942 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
6944 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
6946 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
6949 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
6951 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
6952 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
6954 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
6956 void (*main_func) (),
6959 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
6960 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
6961 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
6962 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
6963 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
6965 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
6966 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
6967 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
6968 know which arguments have been processed.
6970 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
6971 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
6972 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
6973 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
6974 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
6976 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
6977 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
6978 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
6979 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
6980 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
6981 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
6982 people from making that mistake.
6984 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
6985 convenient ways to override these when desired.
6987 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
6989 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
6993 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
6996 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
6997 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
6998 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
6999 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7002 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7003 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7004 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7005 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7008 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7009 have been added to the Guile library.
7011 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7012 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7013 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7016 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7017 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7018 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7020 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7021 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7022 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7023 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7024 argument from the list.
7027 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7030 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7031 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7033 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7034 to a Scheme port object.
7036 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7037 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7042 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7044 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7045 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7046 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7047 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7048 code as a special datatype.
7050 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7051 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7052 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7053 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7054 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7057 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7058 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7059 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7060 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7061 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7063 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7066 Copyright information:
7068 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7070 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7071 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7072 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7073 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7075 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7076 of this document, or of portions of it,
7077 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7078 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7083 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"