1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 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 stable branch:
17 * Changes to the distribution
19 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
21 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
23 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
24 At the moment it is being used to handle Guile's bignums.
26 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
28 Guile now has config.h and libguile/scmconfig.h. The former is not
29 installed and is private. The latter is installed and used by Guile's
30 public headers. config.h is generated by configure and autoheader,
31 and scmconfig.h is generated by a small C program, gen-scmconfig at
32 build time based in part on the contents of config.h.
34 Seen libguile/__scm.h and gen-scmconfig.c for more information.
36 Note too that nearly all public defines are now set to either 1 or 0
37 rather than being set to 1 or left undefined. See gen-scmconfig.c and
38 the GNU Coding Guidelines for the rationale. However, pre-existing
39 defines that were not renamed were not changed. i.e. GUILE_DEBUG is
40 still either 1 or undefined.
42 ** The INSTALL file is now the generic automake installed one.
44 Guile specific instructions can be found in the README.
46 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
48 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
49 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
50 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
51 so the current effective-version is "1.6". The effective version
52 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
53 items like the versioned share directory name
54 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.6.
56 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
57 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
58 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
59 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
60 with each micro release during a stable series.
62 ** There are two new thread implementation options: "null" and "coop-pthreads".
64 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
65 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
66 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
67 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
68 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
71 The "coop-pthread" (or shorter: "copt") thread implementation will use
72 portable POSIX threads but will restrict them so that only one thread
73 can execute 'in Guile' at any one time. This option will give you the
74 same basic behavior as the old "coop" option, but hopefully in a more
77 The default is now "coop-pthread", unless your platform doesn't have
78 pthreads, in which case "null" threads are used.
80 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
82 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when
83 you don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but
84 where you have some section(s) of code which you consider can run
85 in parallel to other sections.
87 They "flag" (with dynamic extent) sections of code to be of
88 "serial" or "parallel" nature and have the single effect of
89 preventing a serial section from being run in parallel with any
90 serial section (including itself).
92 Both serialize and parallelize can be nested. If so, the
93 inner-most construct is in effect.
95 NOTE 1: A serial section can run in parallel with a parallel
98 NOTE 2: If a serial section S is "interrupted" by a parallel
99 section P in the following manner: S = S1 P S2, S2 is not
100 guaranteed to be resumed by the same thread that previously
103 WARNING: Spawning new threads within a serial section have
104 undefined effects. It is OK, though, to spawn threads in unflagged
105 sections of code where neither serialize or parallelize is in
108 A typical usage is when Guile is used as scripting language in some
109 application doing heavy computations. If each thread is
110 encapsulated with a serialize form, you can then put a parallelize
111 form around the code performing the heavy computations (typically a
112 C code primitive), enabling the computations to run in parallel
113 while the scripting code runs single-threadedly.
115 ** Guile now includes its own version of libltdl.
117 We now use a modified version of libltdl that allows us to make
118 improvements to it without having to rely on libtool releases.
120 * Changes to the standalone interpreter
122 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
124 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
125 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
127 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
129 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
130 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
132 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
134 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
137 ** Checking for duplicate bindings in module system
139 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
142 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more duplicates
143 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
151 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
152 has been detected is to
154 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
155 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
156 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
159 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
162 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
164 to your .guile init file.
166 The syntax for the :duplicates option is:
168 :duplicates HANDLER-NAME | (HANDLER1-NAME HANDLER2-NAME ...)
170 Specifying multiple handlers is useful since some handlers (such as
171 replace) can defer conflict resolution to others. Each handler is
172 tried until a binding is selected.
174 Currently available duplicates handlers are:
176 check report an error for bindings with a common name
177 warn issue a warning for bindings with a common name
178 replace replace bindings which have an imported replacement
179 warn-override-core issue a warning for imports which override core bindings
180 and accept the override
181 first select the first encountered binding (override)
182 last select the last encountered binding (override)
184 These two are provided by the (oop goops) module:
186 merge-generics merge generic functions with a common name
187 into an <extended-generic>
188 merge-accessors merge accessors with a common name
190 The default duplicates handler is:
192 (replace warn-override-core warn last)
194 A recommended handler (which is likely to correspond to future Guile
195 behavior) can be installed with:
197 (default-duplicate-binding-handler '(replace warn-override-core check))
199 ** New define-module option: :replace
201 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
204 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
205 for the core binding `format'.
207 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
209 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
210 a prefix to all imported bindings.
213 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
215 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
218 ** Merging generic functions
220 It is sometimes tempting to use GOOPS accessors with short names.
221 For example, it is tempting to use the name `x' for the x-coordinate
224 Assume that we work with a graphical package which needs to use two
225 independent vector packages for 2D and 3D vectors respectively. If
226 both packages export `x' we will encounter a name collision.
228 This can now be resolved automagically with the duplicates handler
229 `merge-generics' which gives the module system license to merge all
230 generic functions sharing a common name:
232 (define-module (math 2D-vectors)
233 :use-module (oop goops)
236 (define-module (math 3D-vectors)
237 :use-module (oop goops)
240 (define-module (my-module)
241 :use-module (math 2D-vectors)
242 :use-module (math 3D-vectors)
243 :duplicates merge-generics)
245 x in (my-module) will now share methods with x in both imported
248 There will, in fact, now be three distinct generic functions named
249 `x': x in (2D-vectors), x in (3D-vectors), and x in (my-module). The
250 last function will be an <extended-generic>, extending the previous
253 Let's call the imported generic functions the "ancestor functions". x
254 in (my-module) is, in turn, a "descendant function" of the imported
255 functions, extending its ancestors.
257 For any generic function G, the applicable methods are selected from
258 the union of the methods of the descendant functions, the methods of G
259 itself and the methods of the ancestor functions.
261 This, ancestor functions share methods with their descendants and vice
262 versa. This implies that x in (math 2D-vectors) can will share the
263 methods of x in (my-module) and vice versa, while x in (math 2D-vectors)
264 doesn't share the methods of x in (math 3D-vectors), thus preserving
267 Sharing is dynamic, so that adding new methods to a descendant implies
268 adding it to the ancestor.
270 If duplicates checking is desired in the above example, the following
271 form of the :duplicates option can be used instead:
273 :duplicates (merge-generics check)
275 ** New function: effective-version
277 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
278 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
279 to the distribution" above.
281 ** Futures: future, make-future, future-ref
283 Futures are like promises, but begun immediately in a new thread. See
284 the "Futures" section in the reference manual.
286 ** New syntax: parallel FORM ...
288 Compute the results of FORM ... in parallel (in a separate thread for
289 each form) and return them as multiple values.
291 ** New syntax: letpar ((VAR EXP) ...) BODYFORM ...
293 Like 'let' but evaluates the binding expressions EXP ... in parallel.
295 ** New functions: par-map, par-for-each PROC ARGLIST ...
297 Like 'map' and 'for-each' but evaluate the procedure PROC in a
298 separate thread for each (set of) argument(s). All applications are
299 guaranteed to be completed before the procedure returns.
301 ** New functions: n-par-map, n-par-for-each N PROC ARGLIST ...
303 Like 'par-map' and 'par-for-each' but evaluate the procedure PROC in N
304 threads. This is useful when PROC uses large amounts of resources
305 and/or the argument list(s) is/are long so that one thread per (set
306 of) argument(s) would consume too much system resources. On a
307 dual-CPU system, N = 4 would often be a good choice.
309 ** New function: n-for-each-par-map N S-PROC P-PROC ARGLIST ...
311 Using N parallel processes, apply S-PROC in serial order to each
312 result of applying P-PROC to each set of arguments in the argument
315 Like a composition of 'for-each' and 'n-par-map', but allows S-PROC to
316 start processing while the results of P-PROC are being produced.
318 ** Fair mutexes and condition variables
320 Fair mutexes and condition variables have been added. The fairness
321 means that scheduling is arranged to give as equal time shares as
322 possible and that threads are awakened in a first-in-first-out
323 manner. This is not guaranteed with standard mutexes and condition
326 In addition, fair mutexes are recursive. Locking a fair mutex that
327 you have already locked will succeed. Every call to lock-mutex must
328 be matched with a call to unlock-mutex. Only the last call to
329 unlock-mutex will actually unlock the mutex.
331 A fair condition variable must be used together with a fair mutex,
332 just as a standard condition variable must be used together with a
335 ** New functions: make-fair-mutex, make-fair-condition-variable'
337 Make a new fair mutex and a new fair condition variable respectively.
339 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
341 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
342 instead if blocking and indicate failure.
344 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
346 The funtion 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
347 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
350 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
352 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
354 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
356 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
357 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
358 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
361 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
362 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
363 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
366 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
367 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
369 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
371 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
372 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
375 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
376 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
378 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
379 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
380 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
381 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
382 level for the current thread.
384 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
386 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
388 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
389 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
392 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
394 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
396 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
399 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
401 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
404 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
405 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
406 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
408 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
409 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
410 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
411 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
422 ERROR: Numerical overflow
424 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
427 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
429 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
430 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
431 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
442 ** We now have uninterned symbols.
444 The new function 'make-symbol' will return a uninterned symbol. This
445 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
446 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
448 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
451 ** pretty-print has more options.
453 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
454 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
455 maximum output width. See its online documentation.
457 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
459 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
460 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
461 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
463 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
465 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
466 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
468 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
470 Change your code to use either procedure->memoizing-macro or, probably better,
471 to use r5rs macros. Also, be aware that macro expansion will not be done
472 during evaluation, but prior to evaluation.
474 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
476 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
477 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
478 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
479 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
480 without the soft port blocking.
482 ** New debugging feature: breakpoints.
484 Guile now has breakpoints. For details see the `Debugging Features'
485 chapter in the reference manual.
487 ** Deprecated: undefine
489 There is no replacement for undefine.
491 ** SRFI-1 delete equality argument order fixed.
493 In the srfi-1 module delete and delete!, the order of the arguments to
494 the "=" procedure now matches the SRFI-1 specification.
496 * Changes to the C interface
498 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
500 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
501 private or renamed with a more suitable public name. See below for
502 the ones which have been renamed.
504 ** HAVE_STDINT_H and HAVE_INTTYPES_H have been removed from public use.
506 HAVE_STDINT_H and HAVE_INTTYPES_H removed from public use. These are
507 no longer needed since the older uses of stdint.h and inttypes.h are
508 now handled by configure.in and gen-scmconfig.c.
510 ** USE_DLL_IMPORT is no longer defined publically.
512 gen-scmconfig now uses it to decide what contents to place in the
513 public scmconfig.h header without adding the USE_DLL_IMPORT itself.
515 ** HAVE_LIMITS_H has been removed from public use.
517 gen-scmconfig now just uses HAVE_LIMITS_H to decide whether or not to
518 add a limits.h include in scmconfig.h.
520 ** time.h, sys/time.h, etc. #ifdefery has been removed from public headers.
522 gen-scmconfig now just uses the same logic to decide what time related
523 #includes to add to scmconfig.h.
525 ** HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC has been removed from public use.
527 scmconfig.h now just defines scm_t_timespec.
529 ** HAVE_PTRDIFF has been removed from public use and Guile doesn't
532 Guile now publically defines scm_t_ptrdiff and
533 SCM_SIZEOF_SCM_T_PTRDIFF in scmconfig.h, and all occurrences of
534 ptrdiff_t have been replaced with scm_t_ptrdiff.
536 Guile defines its own type this rather than just relying on ptrdiff_t
537 and SCM_SIZEOF_PTRDIFF_T because Guile actually typedefs long to
538 scm_t_ptrdiff when ptrdiff_t isn't available. A public "typedef long
539 ptrdiff_t" could conflict with other headers.
541 ** HAVE_UINTPTR_T and HAVE_UINTPTR_T have been removed from public use.
543 They are replaced by public definitions of SCM_SIZEOF_UINTPTR_T and
544 SCM_SIZEOF_INTPTR_T. These are defined to 0 if the corresponding type
547 ** The public #define STDC_HEADERS has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_STDC_HEADERS.
549 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
551 ** The public #define HAVE_SYS_SELECT has been renamed to
552 SCM_HAVE_SYS_SELECT_H.
554 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
556 ** The public #define HAVE_FLOATINGPOINT_H has been renamed to
557 SCM_HAVE_FLOATINGPOINT_H.
559 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
561 ** The public #define HAVE_IEEEFP_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_IEEEFP_H.
563 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
565 ** The public #define HAVE_NAN_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_NAN_H.
567 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
569 ** The public #define HAVE_WINSOCK2_H has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_WINSOCK2_H.
571 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
573 ** The public #define HAVE_ARRAYS has been renamed to SCM_HAVE_ARRAYS.
575 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
577 ** The public #define STACK_GROWS_UP has been renamed to SCM_STACK_GROWS_UP.
579 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
581 ** The public #define USE_PTHREAD_THREADS has been renamed to
582 SCM_USE_PTHREAD_THREADS.
584 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
586 ** The public #define USE_NULL_THREADS has been renamed to
587 SCM_USE_NULL_THREADS.
589 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
591 ** The public #define USE_COOP_THREADS has been renamed to
592 SCM_USE_COOP_THREADS.
594 The previous name was too generic for the global public namespace.
596 ** SCM_C_INLINE is publically defined if possible.
598 If the platform has a way to define inline functions, SCM_C_INLINE
599 will be defined to that text. Otherwise it will be undefined. This
600 is a little bit different than autoconf's normal handling of the
601 inline define via AC_C_INLINE.
603 ** Guile now publically defines some basic type infrastructure.
608 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_CHAR
610 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_SHORT
612 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_LONG
614 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_INT
615 SCM_SIZEOF_LONG_LONG /* defined to 0 if type not available */
616 SCM_SIZEOF_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG /* defined to 0 if type not available */
630 and when either of these are defined to 1, optionally defines
641 ** The preprocessor define USE_THREADS has been deprecated.
643 Going forward, assume that the thread API is always present.
645 ** The preprocessor define GUILE_ISELECT has been deprecated.
647 Going forward, assume that scm_internal_select is always present.
649 ** The preprocessor define READER_EXTENSIONS has been deprecated.
651 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
652 READER_EXTENSIONS are always present.
654 ** The preprocessor define DEBUG_EXTENSIONS has been deprecated.
656 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
657 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS are always present.
659 ** The preprocessor define DYNAMIC_LINKING has been deprecated.
661 Going forward, assume that the features represented by
662 DYNAMIC_LINKING are always present.
664 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
666 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
667 programs. (Do not use.)
669 ** New function: scm_effective_version
671 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
672 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
673 to the distribution" above.
675 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
677 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
678 arguments are now passed directly:
680 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
682 This is an incompatible change.
684 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
686 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
687 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
688 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
690 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
691 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
693 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
695 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
697 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
698 function in the init section.
700 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
702 ** New macros SCM_VECTOR_REF and SCM_VECTOR_SET.
704 Use these in preference to SCM_VELTS.
706 ** The SCM_VELTS macros now returns a read-only vector. For writing,
707 use the new macros SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS or SCM_VECTOR_SET. The use of
708 SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS is discouraged, though.
710 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
712 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
713 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
714 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
715 stays roughly constant.
717 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
718 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
719 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
720 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
721 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
724 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
725 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
726 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
727 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
729 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
731 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
733 ** The struct scm_cell has been renamed to scm_t_cell
735 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
736 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
737 initializes a new cell (see below).
739 ** New functions for memory management
741 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
742 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
743 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
744 cause aborts in long running programs.
746 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
747 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
749 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
750 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
751 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
752 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
753 details and for upgrading instructions.
755 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
756 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
757 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
759 ** New function: scm_str2string
761 This function creates a scheme string from a 0-terminated C string. The input
764 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
766 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
767 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
768 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
769 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
770 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
772 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
773 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
774 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
776 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, QT_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
777 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
779 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
781 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old macros
782 had problems because with them allocation and initialization was separated and
783 the GC could sometimes observe half initialized cells. Only careful coding by
784 the user of SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
786 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
788 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
791 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
793 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
795 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
797 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or, probably better, to use r5rs
798 macros. Also, be aware that macro expansion will not be done during
799 evaluation, but prior to evaluation.
801 ** Removed from scm_root_state: def_inp, def_outp, def_errp, together
802 with corresponding macros scm_def_inp, scm_def_outp and scm_def_errp.
803 These were undocumented and unused copies of the standard ports at the
804 time that Guile was initialised. Normally the current ports should be
805 used instead, obtained from scm_current_input_port () etc. If an
806 application needs to retain earlier ports, it should save them in a
807 gc-protected location.
809 ** Removed compile time option MEMOIZE_LOCALS
811 Now, caching of local variable positions during memoization is mandatory.
812 However, the option to disable the caching has most probably not been used
815 ** Removed compile time option SCM_RECKLESS
817 Full number of arguments checking of closures is mandatory now. However, the
818 option to disable the checking has most probably not been used anyway.
820 ** Removed compile time option SCM_CAUTIOUS
822 Full number of arguments checking of closures is mandatory now. However, the
823 option to disable the checking has most probably not been used anyway.
825 ** Deprecated configure flags USE_THREADS and GUILE_ISELECT
827 Previously, when the C preprocessor macro USE_THREADS was defined,
828 libguile included a thread API. This API is now always included, even
829 when threads are not really supported. Thus, you don't need to test
832 Analogously, GUILE_ISELECT was defined when the function
833 scm_internal_select was provided by Guile. This function is now
834 always defined, and GUILE_ISELECT with it.
836 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
838 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
839 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
841 ** Deprecated definitions of error strings: scm_s_expression, scm_s_test,
842 scm_s_body, scm_s_bindings, scm_s_variable, scm_s_clauses, scm_s_formals
844 These error message strings were used to issue syntax error messages by
845 guile's evaluator. It's unlikely that they have been used by user code.
847 ** Deprecated helper macros for evaluation and application: SCM_EVALIM2,
848 SCM_EVALIM, SCM_XEVAL, SCM_XEVALCAR
850 These macros were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's unlikely
851 that they have been used by user code.
853 ** Deprecated macros for iloc handling: SCM_ILOC00, SCM_IDINC, SCM_IDSTMSK
855 These macros were used in the implementation of the evaluator. It's unlikely
856 that they have been used by user code.
858 ** Removed definitions: scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify,
859 scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify, scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify,
860 scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify, scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell,
861 scm_debug_newcell2, scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH,
862 SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY, SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY,
863 SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED, scm_debug_newcell,
864 scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL,
865 SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL,
866 SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS,
867 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
868 scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3, scm_eval2,
869 root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP,
870 scm_read_only_string_p,
871 scm_make_shared_substring,
872 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP, SCM_DEFVARIABLEP,
873 scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum,
874 scm_adjbig, scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big,
875 scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
877 SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_LENGTH_MAX,
878 SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_ROCHARS,
879 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR, scm_strhash,
880 scm_sym2vcell, scm_sym2ovcell_soft, scm_sym2ovcell,
881 scm_intern_obarray_soft, scm_intern_obarray, scm_intern, scm_intern0,
882 scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0, scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup,
883 scm_symbol_value0, scm_string_to_obarray_symbol, scm_intern_symbol,
884 scm_unintern_symbol, scm_symbol_binding, scm_symbol_interned_p,
885 scm_symbol_bound_p, scm_symbol_set_x, scm_gentemp,
886 scm_init_symbols_deprecated, s_vector_set_length_x,
887 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
888 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_OPDIRP, scm_fport, scm_option,
889 SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT,
890 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT, scm_srcprops, scm_srcprops_chunk,
891 scm_info_frame, scm_stack, scm_array, scm_array_dim,
892 SCM_ARRAY_CONTIGUOUS, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_WTA,
893 RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
894 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR,
895 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
896 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING,
897 SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
898 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
899 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
900 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
901 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable
903 Changes since Guile 1.4:
905 * Changes to the distribution
907 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
909 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
911 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
912 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
913 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
914 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
915 indicate major changes in Guile.
917 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
918 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
919 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
920 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
922 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
923 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
924 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
925 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
926 micro version number.
928 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
930 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
932 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
933 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
935 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
937 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
938 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
939 See INSTALL and README for more information.
941 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
943 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
944 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
945 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
948 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
950 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
953 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
955 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
956 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
958 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
960 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
961 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
964 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
966 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
969 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
972 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
974 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
976 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
977 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
978 open-output-string, get-output-string.
980 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
982 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
984 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
987 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
989 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
991 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
993 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
994 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
995 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
997 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
999 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1001 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1002 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1011 See README there for more info.
1013 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1014 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1017 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1019 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1021 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1023 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1024 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1025 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1027 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1029 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1030 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1031 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1033 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1034 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1036 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1039 (oop goops describe)
1041 (oop goops active-slot)
1042 (oop goops composite-slot)
1044 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1045 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1046 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1048 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1050 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1051 in the default environment:
1053 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1054 %read-line write-line
1056 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1057 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1059 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1061 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1064 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1065 can be used for similar functionality.
1067 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1069 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1070 it defines two procedures:
1072 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1074 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1075 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1076 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1079 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1081 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1082 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1083 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1084 write large strings.
1086 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1088 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1089 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1091 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1093 for complete documentation.
1095 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1097 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1098 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1099 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1100 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1102 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1103 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1107 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1108 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1109 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1112 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1115 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1116 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1118 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1119 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1122 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1125 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1127 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1129 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1131 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1133 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1134 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1135 Scheme programs easier.
1137 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1138 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1139 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1140 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1141 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1144 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1145 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1147 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1150 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1152 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1153 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1154 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1157 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1159 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1161 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1162 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1163 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1164 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1165 was also ASCII, for example.
1167 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1169 tag - no replacement.
1170 fseek - replaced by seek.
1171 list* - replaced by cons*.
1173 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1177 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1178 (define m (make-safe-module))
1179 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1180 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1181 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1183 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1185 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1186 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1187 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1189 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1191 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1192 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1193 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1194 from the issues related to the module system.
1196 *** New function: load-extension
1198 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1200 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1202 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1203 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1204 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1206 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1208 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1209 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1210 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1211 support dynamic linking).
1213 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1215 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1216 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1217 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1218 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1221 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1222 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1223 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1224 library and initialize it explicitely.
1226 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1227 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1229 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1231 (define-module (foo bar))
1233 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1235 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1237 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1238 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1240 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1241 (null-environment 5)
1242 (interaction-environment)
1248 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1250 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1251 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1252 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1253 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1255 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1256 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1257 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1258 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1259 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1260 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1261 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1262 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1263 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1264 one eval to the next.
1266 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1267 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1268 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1269 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1270 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1272 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1273 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1274 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1275 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1276 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1277 used in a lexical environment.
1279 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1280 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1281 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1282 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1283 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1284 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1286 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1288 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1289 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1290 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1291 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1292 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1294 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1295 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1296 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1298 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1299 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1301 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1302 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1303 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1305 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1306 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1308 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1309 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1310 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1311 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1314 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1315 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1316 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1317 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1319 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1320 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1321 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1323 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1324 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1325 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1326 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1327 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1329 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1331 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1332 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1333 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1335 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1336 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1337 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1339 See manual for more info.
1341 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1343 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1344 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1345 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1347 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1349 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1350 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1351 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1353 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1354 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1355 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1356 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1358 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1360 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1361 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1363 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1364 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1365 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1366 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1367 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1370 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1371 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1372 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1373 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1374 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1375 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1377 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1378 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1379 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1380 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1381 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1383 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1384 objects are usually permanent.
1386 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1387 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1389 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1391 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1392 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1395 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1399 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1404 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1406 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1407 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1408 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1409 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1411 ** New function `make-object-property'
1413 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
1414 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
1418 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
1419 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
1423 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
1424 source properties eventually.
1426 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
1428 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
1429 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
1430 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
1432 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
1433 will be removed in the next release.
1435 ** New define-module option: pure
1437 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
1442 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
1445 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
1447 Export names NAME1 ...
1449 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
1450 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
1454 (define-module (foo)
1456 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
1459 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
1464 ** New function: object->string OBJ
1466 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
1468 ** New function: port? X
1470 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
1471 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
1473 ** New function: file-port?
1475 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
1477 ** New function: port-for-each proc
1479 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
1480 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
1481 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
1482 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
1483 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
1485 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
1487 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
1488 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
1489 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
1490 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
1491 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
1494 ** New function: close-fdes fd
1496 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
1497 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
1498 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
1499 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
1502 ** New function: crypt password salt
1504 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
1507 ** New function: chroot path
1509 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
1511 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
1513 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
1516 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
1518 Get or set the priority of the running process.
1520 ** New function: getpass prompt
1522 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
1525 ** New function: flock file operation
1527 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
1529 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
1531 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
1534 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
1536 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
1537 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
1538 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
1539 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
1540 of the temporary file.
1542 ** New function: open-input-string string
1544 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
1545 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
1546 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
1548 ** New function: open-output-string
1550 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
1551 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
1553 ** New function: get-output-string
1555 Return the contents of an output string port.
1557 ** New function: identity
1559 Return the argument.
1561 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
1562 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
1564 ** New function: inet-pton family address
1566 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
1567 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
1568 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1571 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
1572 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
1574 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
1576 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
1577 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
1578 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1581 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
1582 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
1583 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
1587 Use `identity' instead.
1593 ** Deprecated: return-it
1597 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
1599 Use `string-length' instead.
1601 ** Deprecated: flags
1603 Use `logior' instead.
1605 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
1607 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
1608 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
1609 port-for-each is more flexible.
1611 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
1612 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
1613 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
1615 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
1617 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
1619 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
1621 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
1623 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
1625 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
1626 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
1628 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
1629 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
1631 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
1632 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
1634 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
1636 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
1637 Removed function: builtin-bindings
1639 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
1640 Use module system operations for all variables.
1642 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
1644 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
1647 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
1649 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
1650 The following bugs have been fixed:
1652 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
1653 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
1656 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
1657 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
1658 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
1660 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
1661 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
1663 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
1664 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
1667 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
1668 The expansion used to be like so:
1670 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
1672 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
1674 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
1676 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
1677 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
1679 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
1681 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
1682 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
1683 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
1687 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
1688 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
1690 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
1695 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
1696 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
1698 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
1699 and `d', other keywords allowed.
1700 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
1702 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
1705 * Changes to the C interface
1707 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
1709 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
1710 with "_t". What a concept.
1712 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
1714 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
1716 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
1720 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
1721 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
1723 *** C Functions removed
1725 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
1726 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
1727 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
1728 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
1729 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
1730 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
1731 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
1733 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
1735 Use scm_mem2string instead.
1737 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
1739 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
1741 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
1742 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
1744 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
1746 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
1749 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
1751 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
1753 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
1755 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments.
1759 scm_call_1 (proc, arg1);
1761 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
1763 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list
1768 scm_apply_1 (proc, arg1, args);
1770 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
1772 Create a list of the given number of elements.
1774 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
1776 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
1777 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
1779 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
1781 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
1783 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
1784 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
1785 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
1787 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
1789 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
1791 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
1792 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
1793 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
1796 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
1798 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
1800 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
1801 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
1803 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
1805 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
1806 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
1807 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
1808 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
1810 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
1811 scm_primitive_property_ref
1812 scm_primitive_property_set_x
1813 scm_primitive_property_del_x
1815 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
1816 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
1818 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
1820 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
1821 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
1822 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
1823 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
1825 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
1827 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
1828 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
1829 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
1830 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
1831 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
1832 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
1833 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
1835 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
1836 scm_remember_upto_here
1838 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
1840 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
1842 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
1843 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
1845 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
1847 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
1849 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
1851 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
1853 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
1855 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
1856 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
1857 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
1858 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
1859 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
1860 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
1862 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
1864 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
1866 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
1867 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
1868 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
1870 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
1872 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
1873 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
1874 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
1876 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
1878 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
1879 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
1882 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
1885 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
1886 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1889 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
1891 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
1893 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
1895 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
1897 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
1899 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
1901 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
1902 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
1903 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
1904 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1905 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
1906 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
1907 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
1908 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1909 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
1910 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
1911 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
1912 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
1913 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
1914 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
1915 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
1917 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
1918 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
1919 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
1920 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
1921 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
1922 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
1923 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
1924 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
1925 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
1926 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
1927 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
1928 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
1929 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
1930 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
1931 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
1932 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
1933 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
1934 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
1935 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
1936 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
1937 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
1938 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
1939 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
1940 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
1941 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
1942 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
1943 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
1944 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
1945 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
1947 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
1949 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
1951 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
1952 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
1954 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
1956 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
1958 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
1960 Use scm_string_hash instead.
1962 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
1964 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
1966 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
1968 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
1970 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
1973 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
1974 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
1976 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
1978 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
1980 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
1982 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
1984 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
1986 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
1988 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
1990 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
1993 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
1995 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
1997 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
1999 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2000 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2002 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2003 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2005 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2007 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2008 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2009 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2011 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2013 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2015 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2016 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2018 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2019 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2020 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2021 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2023 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2024 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2025 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2027 Use the new ones from above instead.
2029 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2031 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2032 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2033 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2035 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2036 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2038 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2039 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2042 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2043 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2045 Use the new functions instead.
2047 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2050 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2052 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2054 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2057 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2059 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2062 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2064 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2067 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2068 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2069 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2071 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2073 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2074 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2076 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2077 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2078 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2079 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2082 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2084 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2085 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2086 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2087 inexact for an exact.
2089 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2090 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2091 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2094 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2095 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2096 accept an inexact argument.
2098 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2099 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2101 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2104 ** New number validation macros:
2105 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2109 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2111 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2112 scm_unprotect_object.
2114 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2116 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2118 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2121 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2123 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2127 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2129 * Changes to the distribution
2131 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2133 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2134 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2135 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2136 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2137 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2138 obtain these programs.
2139 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2140 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2142 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2143 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2144 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2145 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2146 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2148 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2149 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2150 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2151 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2155 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2158 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2159 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2160 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2161 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2163 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2165 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2167 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2168 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2170 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2171 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2173 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2174 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2176 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2177 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2178 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2179 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2181 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2183 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2187 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2188 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2190 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2192 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2193 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2195 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2196 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2197 number of objects of that kind.
2199 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2201 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2202 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2203 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2204 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2205 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2207 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2209 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2211 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2213 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2216 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2218 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2220 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2222 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2224 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2226 ** New command line option --debug
2228 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2230 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2232 ** New help facility
2234 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2235 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2236 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2237 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2238 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2239 (help) gives this text
2241 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2242 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2244 Examples: (help help)
2246 (help "output-string")
2248 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2250 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2252 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2253 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2256 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2257 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2258 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2261 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2262 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2263 use absolute filenames when possible.
2265 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2266 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2267 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2270 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2272 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2273 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2274 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2275 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2277 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2279 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2281 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2282 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2283 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2285 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2286 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2287 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2289 (read-enable 'positions)
2290 (debug-enable 'debug)
2292 ** Backtraces in scripts
2294 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2298 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2300 at the top of the script.
2302 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2303 The second enables backtraces.)
2305 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2307 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2308 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2309 substantially faster than before.
2311 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2312 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2314 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2315 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2317 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2319 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2320 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2321 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2323 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2324 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2325 when this hook is run in the future.
2327 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2328 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2330 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2332 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2333 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2336 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2337 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2338 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2340 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2341 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2343 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2344 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2346 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2347 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2348 in order not to need further allocation.)
2350 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2353 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2354 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2355 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2356 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2358 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2360 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2363 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2365 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2368 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2369 GC in percent of total heap size
2372 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2373 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2375 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2377 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2378 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2380 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2382 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2383 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2385 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2387 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2388 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2392 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2393 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2395 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2397 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2399 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2401 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2403 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2405 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2406 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2408 (simple-format port message . args)
2409 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2410 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2411 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2412 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2413 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2414 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2415 Does not add a trailing newline."
2417 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
2419 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
2420 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
2422 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
2423 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
2425 ** Deprecated: list*
2427 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
2429 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
2431 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
2432 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
2434 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
2435 is returned as result.
2437 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
2439 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
2441 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
2443 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
2444 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
2447 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
2449 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
2451 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
2452 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
2454 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2456 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
2458 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
2460 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2462 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
2464 Thanks to Greg Badros!
2466 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2468 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2469 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
2470 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
2472 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
2475 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
2477 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
2478 the readability of argument checking.
2480 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
2482 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
2484 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
2486 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
2487 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
2488 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
2489 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
2490 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
2491 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
2492 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
2494 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
2496 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
2498 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
2499 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
2501 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
2503 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
2504 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
2507 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
2509 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
2510 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
2511 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
2513 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
2514 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
2515 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
2517 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
2518 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
2519 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
2520 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
2521 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
2522 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
2523 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
2525 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
2526 scm_end_input (object);
2527 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
2528 ptob->flush (object);
2530 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
2531 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
2534 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
2536 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
2538 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
2539 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
2540 removed in a future version.
2542 ** The format of error message strings has changed
2544 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
2545 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
2546 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
2547 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
2549 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
2550 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
2552 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
2555 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
2557 in your configure.in.
2559 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
2564 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
2570 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
2572 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
2576 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
2577 (define make-message string-append)
2579 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
2581 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
2585 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
2590 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
2594 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
2596 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
2597 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
2599 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
2601 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
2602 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
2603 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
2604 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
2605 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
2606 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
2608 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
2609 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
2610 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
2612 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
2613 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
2614 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
2617 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
2618 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
2619 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
2620 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
2621 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
2623 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
2624 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
2625 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
2626 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
2627 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
2628 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
2629 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
2631 Destructors are not yet implemented.
2633 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
2634 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
2635 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
2637 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
2638 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
2639 KEY in the calling thread.
2641 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
2642 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
2643 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
2644 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
2645 associated with the key.
2647 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
2649 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
2650 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
2652 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
2654 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
2655 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
2656 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
2658 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
2660 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
2661 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
2663 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
2665 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
2667 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
2668 returned is undefined.
2670 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
2671 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
2672 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
2674 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
2675 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
2676 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
2678 ** New C level GC hooks
2680 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
2682 scm_before_gc_c_hook
2685 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
2686 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
2687 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
2689 scm_before_mark_c_hook
2690 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
2691 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
2693 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
2694 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
2697 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
2699 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
2700 allocation parameters
2702 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
2703 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
2704 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
2708 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
2709 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
2710 scm_default_max_segment_size
2712 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
2714 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
2715 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
2717 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
2719 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
2720 object and count on the object being protected until
2721 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
2723 The functions also have better time complexity.
2725 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
2726 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
2727 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
2728 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
2729 are no longer needed.
2731 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
2733 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
2734 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
2735 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
2736 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
2738 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
2740 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
2742 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
2744 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
2745 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
2746 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
2747 until this issue has been settled.
2749 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
2751 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
2753 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
2756 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
2758 * Changes to system call interfaces:
2760 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
2761 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
2762 descriptors were checked.
2764 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
2765 atomically written to a pipe.
2767 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
2768 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
2769 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
2770 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
2771 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
2772 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
2773 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
2776 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
2777 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
2778 is changed without calling tzset.
2780 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
2782 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
2783 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
2784 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
2786 (define write-network-long
2787 (lambda (value port)
2788 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
2789 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
2790 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
2792 (define read-network-long
2794 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
2795 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
2796 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
2798 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
2799 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
2801 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
2802 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
2803 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
2804 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
2806 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
2807 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
2808 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
2809 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
2813 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
2815 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2819 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
2820 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
2821 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
2827 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
2828 for a description of available commands.
2830 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
2831 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
2832 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
2834 (debug-enable 'backwards)
2836 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
2837 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
2839 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
2841 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
2843 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
2844 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
2845 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
2846 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
2847 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
2848 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
2851 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
2853 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
2854 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
2855 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
2856 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
2858 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
2859 the file and should not be affected by this change.
2861 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
2863 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2865 ** Readline support has changed again.
2867 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
2868 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
2869 to activate readline is now
2871 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
2874 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
2876 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
2877 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
2878 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
2881 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
2882 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
2883 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
2886 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
2887 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
2888 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
2889 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
2890 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
2891 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
2893 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
2894 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
2896 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
2898 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
2899 object it receives is the same string passed to
2900 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
2901 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
2902 string, not the suffix.
2904 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
2905 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
2906 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
2908 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
2910 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
2911 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
2912 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
2913 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
2916 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
2918 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
2920 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
2921 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
2922 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
2923 appear from left to right.
2925 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
2928 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
2930 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
2931 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
2933 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
2937 *** New function: hook? OBJ
2939 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
2941 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
2943 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
2944 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
2945 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
2947 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
2949 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
2951 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
2953 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
2956 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
2958 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
2959 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
2960 mentioning it here anyway.
2962 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
2964 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
2965 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
2966 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
2967 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
2970 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
2972 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
2974 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
2976 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
2977 otherwise return #f.
2979 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
2981 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
2982 returned by `opendir'.
2984 ** New function: using-readline?
2986 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
2988 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
2990 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
2991 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
2993 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2995 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
2997 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
2998 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
2999 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3001 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3003 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3004 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3006 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3008 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3009 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3010 documentation slots are not yet used.
3012 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3014 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3015 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3016 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3021 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3022 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3023 (string-append x y))
3025 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3026 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3028 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3029 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3030 be made in a clean way.]
3032 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3034 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3036 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3038 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3039 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3041 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3043 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3045 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3047 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3049 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3050 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3051 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3052 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3055 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3057 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3059 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3061 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3063 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3064 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3066 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3068 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3070 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3072 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3074 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3075 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3076 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3077 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3078 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3079 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3081 This should not make any difference for most users.
3083 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3085 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3086 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3088 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3090 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3091 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3092 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3093 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3094 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3096 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3098 It is now replaced by:
3100 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3102 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3103 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3105 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3107 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3108 This might change when we get the new module system.
3110 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3114 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3116 * Changes to mailing lists
3118 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3120 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3123 * Changes to the distribution
3125 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3127 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3128 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3129 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3130 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3131 you explicitly specify it.
3133 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3134 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3135 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3136 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3137 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3140 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3141 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3142 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3143 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3145 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3146 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3147 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3150 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3152 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3155 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3157 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3159 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3160 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3161 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3162 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3164 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3165 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3168 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3170 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3171 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3172 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3173 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3174 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3175 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3176 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3177 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3189 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3190 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3191 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3192 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3193 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3198 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3199 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3207 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3212 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3213 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3216 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3217 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3218 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3219 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3221 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3223 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3225 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3226 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3228 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3230 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3232 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3233 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3235 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3238 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3240 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3242 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3244 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3246 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3248 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3250 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3251 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3252 when the hook was created.
3254 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3255 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3256 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3257 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3258 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3259 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3260 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3261 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3262 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3264 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3265 the dlopen family of functions.
3267 ** New function `provided?'
3269 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3270 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3271 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3272 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3274 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3276 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3277 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3278 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3279 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3282 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3283 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3284 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3285 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3287 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3288 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3289 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3292 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3293 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3294 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3295 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3296 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3297 but with the flag set.
3299 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3301 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3302 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3304 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3305 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3306 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3307 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3308 available Scheme format implementations.
3310 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3311 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3312 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3313 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3314 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3315 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3316 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3317 output is to the current error port if available by the
3318 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3321 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3322 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3323 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3324 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3325 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3326 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3327 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3328 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3330 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3331 be executed at a time.
3334 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3336 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3337 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3338 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3340 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3341 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3342 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3343 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3344 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3345 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3346 general form of a directive is:
3348 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3350 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3352 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3354 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3355 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3356 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3359 Any (print as `display' does).
3363 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3367 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3371 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3377 print number sign always.
3380 print comma separated.
3382 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3388 print number sign always.
3391 print comma separated.
3393 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3399 print number sign always.
3402 print comma separated.
3404 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3410 print number sign always.
3413 print comma separated.
3415 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
3420 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
3424 print a number as a Roman numeral.
3427 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
3430 print a number as an ordinal English number.
3433 print a number as a cardinal English number.
3438 prints `y' and `ies'.
3441 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3444 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3449 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
3453 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
3456 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
3457 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
3459 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3462 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
3463 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
3465 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3468 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
3470 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
3472 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3475 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
3477 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
3479 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3482 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
3485 The sign appears before the padding.
3493 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
3495 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
3500 print N page separators.
3510 newline is ignored, white space left.
3513 newline is left, white space ignored.
3518 relative tabulation.
3524 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
3526 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
3529 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
3531 converts by `string-capitalize'.
3534 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
3537 converts by `string-upcase'.
3540 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
3542 jumps N arguments forward.
3545 jumps 1 argument backward.
3548 jumps N arguments backward.
3551 jumps to the 0th argument.
3554 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
3556 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
3557 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
3559 take argument from N.
3562 true test conditional.
3565 if-else-then conditional.
3571 default clause follows.
3574 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
3576 at most N iterations.
3579 args from next arg (a list of lists).
3582 args from the rest of arguments.
3585 args from the rest args (lists).
3596 aborts if N <= M <= K
3598 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3601 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3604 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3610 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
3612 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
3614 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
3615 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
3616 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
3617 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
3618 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
3619 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
3623 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
3627 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
3633 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
3636 Print a `#\space' character
3638 print N `#\space' characters.
3641 Print a `#\tab' character
3643 print N `#\tab' characters.
3646 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
3647 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
3648 must be a positive decimal number.
3651 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3652 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3653 be processed by `read'.
3656 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3657 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3658 be processed by `read'.
3661 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
3664 prints format version.
3667 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
3668 and format it accordingly.
3670 *** Configuration Variables
3672 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
3673 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
3674 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
3675 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
3678 format:symbol-case-conv
3679 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
3680 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
3681 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
3682 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
3683 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
3685 format:iobj-case-conv
3686 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
3687 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
3690 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
3693 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
3699 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
3700 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
3701 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
3702 `format' padding style.
3705 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
3706 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
3707 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
3708 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
3712 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
3713 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
3714 directive parameters or modifiers)).
3717 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
3718 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
3719 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
3720 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
3721 parameters or modifiers)).
3724 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
3726 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
3728 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
3729 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
3731 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
3732 string-downcase! functions.
3734 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
3735 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
3737 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
3740 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
3743 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
3744 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
3746 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
3748 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
3749 the symbol had be read by `read'.
3751 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
3752 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
3753 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
3754 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
3755 would if STRING were input.
3757 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
3759 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
3760 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
3761 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
3762 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
3765 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
3767 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
3768 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
3771 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
3773 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
3774 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
3776 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
3777 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
3779 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
3780 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
3781 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
3782 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
3784 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
3785 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
3787 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
3788 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
3789 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
3791 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
3792 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
3794 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
3795 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
3796 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
3797 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
3798 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
3800 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
3801 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
3802 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
3803 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
3804 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
3805 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
3807 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
3808 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
3809 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
3812 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
3813 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
3814 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
3815 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
3816 the following grammar:
3817 ((apples (single-char #\a))
3818 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
3819 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
3820 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
3821 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
3822 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
3823 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
3824 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
3825 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
3826 last option in its combination)
3828 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
3829 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
3830 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
3831 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
3833 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
3834 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
3835 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
3837 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
3838 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
3839 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
3841 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
3842 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
3843 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
3844 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
3845 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
3846 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
3847 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
3848 ordinary argument strings.
3850 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
3851 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
3852 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
3853 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
3855 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
3856 as a list, associated with the empty list.
3858 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
3859 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
3860 - a required option is omitted
3861 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
3862 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
3863 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
3864 - an option predicate fails
3869 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
3872 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
3873 (verbose (required? #f)
3876 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
3877 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
3878 (predicate ,string?))))
3880 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
3881 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
3883 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
3884 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
3885 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
3886 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
3889 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
3891 It will be removed in a few releases.
3893 ** New syntax: lambda*
3894 ** New syntax: define*
3895 ** New syntax: define*-public
3896 ** New syntax: defmacro*
3897 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
3898 Guile now supports optional arguments.
3900 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
3901 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
3902 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
3903 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
3904 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
3906 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
3907 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
3908 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
3910 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
3912 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
3913 and examples for `lambda*':
3916 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
3918 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
3919 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
3920 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
3921 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
3922 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
3923 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
3924 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
3925 can be checked with the bound? macro.
3927 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
3929 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
3930 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
3931 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
3932 are given as keywords are bound to values.
3934 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
3935 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
3936 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
3937 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
3938 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
3939 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
3940 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
3941 and until the procedure is called.
3943 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
3945 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
3946 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
3947 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
3948 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
3949 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
3950 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
3951 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
3952 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
3953 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
3954 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
3956 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
3957 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
3958 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
3959 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
3962 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
3964 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
3965 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
3966 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
3967 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
3969 ** New syntax: and-let*
3970 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
3972 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
3973 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
3974 (<variable> <expression>)
3977 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
3978 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
3979 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
3982 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
3983 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
3984 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
3985 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
3986 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
3987 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
3988 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
3990 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
3991 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
3992 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
3993 shadow earlier bindings.
3995 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
3997 ** New sorting functions
3999 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4000 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4001 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4002 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4004 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4005 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4008 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4009 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4010 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4012 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4013 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4014 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4015 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4017 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4018 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4019 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4020 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4021 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4024 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4025 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4026 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4027 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4028 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4029 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4031 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4032 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4033 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4035 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4036 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4037 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4040 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4041 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4042 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4044 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4045 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4047 ** New built-in random number support
4049 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4050 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4051 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4052 returned have a uniform distribution.
4054 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4055 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4056 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4057 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4058 effect of the `random' operation.
4060 *** New variable: *random-state*
4061 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4062 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4063 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4064 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4065 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4068 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4069 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4070 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4071 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4072 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4074 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4075 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4076 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4077 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4078 initialized using SEED.
4080 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4081 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4082 range between 0 and 1.
4084 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4085 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4086 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4087 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4088 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4089 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4090 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4092 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4093 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4094 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4095 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4096 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4097 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4099 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4100 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4101 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4102 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4104 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4105 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4106 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4107 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4109 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4110 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4111 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4113 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4115 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4118 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4119 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4122 ** New function: make-guardian
4123 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4124 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4125 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4126 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4127 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4129 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4130 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4131 one object if at all.
4133 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4134 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4135 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4137 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4138 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4139 read again in last-in first-out order.
4141 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4142 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4144 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4146 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4147 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4148 file position is used.
4150 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4151 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4152 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4154 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4155 redefined using seek.
4157 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4158 size is not supplied.
4160 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4161 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4163 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4164 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4166 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4168 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4169 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4170 and returns the contents as a single string.
4172 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4173 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4174 lists in serial order.
4176 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4177 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4178 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4180 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4181 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4182 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4183 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4185 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4186 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4187 and #f if an error occured.
4189 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4191 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4192 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4193 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4194 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4196 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4198 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4201 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4203 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4206 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4210 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4211 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4213 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4214 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4218 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4220 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4222 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4223 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4225 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4227 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4228 might change when we get the new module system.
4230 ** The smob interface
4232 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4233 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4235 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4237 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4241 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4242 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4243 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4244 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4245 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4246 will be freed by the default free function.
4248 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4249 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4250 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4251 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4253 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4254 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4255 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4256 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4258 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4260 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4261 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4265 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4266 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4267 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4269 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4270 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4271 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4272 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4274 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4275 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4276 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4278 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4279 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4280 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4281 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4283 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4284 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4285 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4287 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4291 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4293 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4294 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4295 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4297 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4298 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4299 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4301 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4302 a string port's buffer.
4304 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4305 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4306 function pointers which together define the current random number
4307 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4308 number library functions.
4310 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4313 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4314 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4317 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4318 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4320 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4321 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4323 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4324 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4327 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4328 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4329 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4330 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4332 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4333 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4334 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4335 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4336 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4337 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4338 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4340 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4341 by libguile and the application.
4343 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4344 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4345 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4346 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4348 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4349 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4351 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4352 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4353 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4355 ** Random number library functions
4356 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4357 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4358 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4360 The default random state is stored in:
4362 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4363 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4364 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4369 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4371 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4372 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4373 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4374 isn't a random state.
4376 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4377 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4379 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4380 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4381 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4382 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4384 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4385 Return 32 random bits.
4387 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4388 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4390 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4391 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4393 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4394 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4396 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4397 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4399 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4400 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4401 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4405 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4407 * Changes to the distribution
4409 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4410 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4411 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4414 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4415 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4416 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
4418 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
4419 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
4420 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
4421 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
4424 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
4425 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
4426 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
4428 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4430 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
4432 *** Function: batch-mode?
4434 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
4437 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
4439 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
4440 case has not been implemented.
4442 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
4443 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
4444 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
4447 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
4448 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
4450 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
4452 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4454 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
4456 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
4457 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
4460 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
4461 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
4462 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
4463 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
4466 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
4468 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
4469 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
4470 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
4471 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
4472 find those libraries.
4474 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
4475 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
4478 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
4480 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
4481 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
4482 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
4483 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
4485 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
4486 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
4487 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
4491 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
4493 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
4494 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
4495 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
4498 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
4499 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
4500 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
4501 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
4503 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
4504 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
4507 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
4508 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
4509 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
4510 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
4511 compiler where to find the libraries.
4513 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
4514 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
4515 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
4517 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
4518 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
4519 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
4520 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
4521 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
4525 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4527 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
4528 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
4529 internationalization support.
4531 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
4532 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
4533 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
4534 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
4535 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
4537 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
4538 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
4539 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
4540 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
4541 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
4543 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
4544 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
4545 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
4546 any GNU mirror site.
4548 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
4550 ** New function: add-history STRING
4551 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
4552 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
4553 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
4555 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
4557 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
4558 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
4559 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
4562 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
4563 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
4564 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
4566 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
4568 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
4571 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
4572 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
4575 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
4576 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
4577 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
4578 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
4579 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
4580 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
4582 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
4583 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
4584 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
4585 of the form mentioned above.
4587 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
4588 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
4589 returned in the special `rest' list.
4591 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
4592 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
4594 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
4596 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
4598 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
4600 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
4601 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
4602 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
4603 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
4604 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
4605 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
4606 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
4607 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
4610 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
4612 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
4614 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
4615 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
4618 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
4619 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
4620 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
4624 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
4625 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
4626 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
4627 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
4628 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
4629 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
4630 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
4631 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
4634 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
4636 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
4637 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
4638 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
4640 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
4642 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
4643 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
4645 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
4646 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
4647 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
4649 Why do we have this function?
4650 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
4651 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
4652 primitive, and display it differently, and
4653 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
4654 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
4657 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
4658 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
4661 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
4662 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
4663 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
4664 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
4666 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
4667 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
4670 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
4671 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
4673 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
4675 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
4676 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
4677 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
4678 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
4679 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
4680 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
4681 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
4684 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
4686 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
4687 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
4689 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
4690 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
4691 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
4692 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
4693 properly continue the print chain.
4695 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
4696 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
4697 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
4698 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
4699 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
4700 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
4701 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
4702 print-state, it is simply ignored.
4704 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
4705 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
4706 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
4707 safest to not check for these pairs.
4709 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
4710 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
4711 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
4712 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
4714 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
4716 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
4717 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
4719 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
4721 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
4723 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
4724 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
4725 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
4727 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
4728 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
4729 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
4731 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
4732 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
4733 the following functions and macros:
4735 Function: make-fluid
4737 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
4738 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
4739 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
4740 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
4741 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
4743 Function: fluid? OBJ
4745 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
4747 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
4748 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
4750 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
4751 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
4753 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
4755 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
4756 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
4757 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
4758 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
4759 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
4760 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
4761 modified by `with-fluids*'.
4763 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
4765 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
4766 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
4767 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
4768 should evaluate to a fluid.
4770 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
4772 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
4773 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
4774 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
4775 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
4776 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
4778 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
4781 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
4783 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
4785 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
4787 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
4790 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
4791 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
4792 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
4793 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
4794 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
4797 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
4798 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
4799 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
4801 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
4802 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
4803 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
4805 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
4806 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
4807 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
4808 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
4810 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
4811 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
4812 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
4813 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
4815 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
4816 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
4817 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
4818 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
4820 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
4821 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
4822 their revealed counts set to zero.
4824 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4825 Returns an integer file descriptor.
4827 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4828 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
4830 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4831 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
4833 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4834 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
4835 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
4837 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
4838 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
4839 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
4841 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
4842 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
4843 default environment inherited by child processes.
4845 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
4846 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
4847 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
4849 The return value is unspecified.
4851 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
4852 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
4853 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
4854 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
4855 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
4857 The return value is unspecified.
4859 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
4860 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
4868 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
4869 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
4872 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
4875 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
4876 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
4877 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
4879 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
4880 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
4881 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
4882 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
4885 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
4886 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
4888 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
4889 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
4890 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
4891 the `environ' procedure.
4893 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
4894 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
4897 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
4898 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
4900 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
4901 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
4902 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
4903 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
4905 *** procedure: times
4906 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
4907 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
4908 return a selected component:
4911 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
4915 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
4918 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
4922 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
4923 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
4927 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
4928 terminated child processes.
4930 ** Removed: list-length
4931 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
4932 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
4934 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
4936 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
4938 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
4940 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
4941 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
4942 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
4943 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
4945 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
4946 extra complexity it introduces.
4948 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
4949 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
4951 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
4952 variable to any non-empty value.
4954 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
4955 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
4957 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4959 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
4960 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
4962 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
4964 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
4965 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
4967 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
4969 ** vector handling routines
4971 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
4972 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
4973 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
4974 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
4975 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
4977 ** pair and list routines
4979 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
4982 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
4984 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
4987 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4989 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
4991 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
4992 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
4993 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
4994 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
4995 site-specific initialization code.
4997 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
4998 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
4999 initialization processes.
5001 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5002 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5003 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5004 initialized properly.
5006 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5007 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5008 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5010 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5011 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5012 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5013 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5014 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5016 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5018 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5019 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5020 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5021 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5022 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5024 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5025 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5026 which look like this:
5029 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5031 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5032 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5035 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5036 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5039 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5041 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5042 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5043 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5045 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5046 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5047 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5048 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5049 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5051 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5052 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5054 int (*free) (SCM port);
5055 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5056 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5057 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5061 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5062 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5063 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5065 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5068 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5069 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5070 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5072 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5073 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5074 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5077 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5081 struct timeval *timeout);
5083 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5084 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5085 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5086 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5087 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5088 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5090 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5091 scm_catch_body_t body,
5093 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5096 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5097 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5098 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5099 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5100 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5101 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5103 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5105 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5108 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5109 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5110 spawning threads from application C code.
5112 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5113 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5114 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5115 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5116 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5117 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5119 ** Removed functions:
5121 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5122 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5124 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5126 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5127 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5129 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5131 ** mbstrings are now removed
5133 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5134 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5136 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5138 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5139 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5140 their new names and arguments:
5142 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5143 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5144 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5145 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5148 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5150 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5152 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5155 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5157 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5158 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5159 pass a #f arg to catch.
5161 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5163 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5164 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5167 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5168 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5169 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5170 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5171 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5172 reclaim its storage.
5174 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5175 worrying that some other function you call will call
5176 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5177 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5178 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5179 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5182 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5184 * Changes to the distribution
5186 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5187 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5190 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5191 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5193 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5194 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5196 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5198 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5199 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5200 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5202 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5204 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5205 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5206 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5207 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5208 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5209 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5211 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5212 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5213 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5216 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5217 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5218 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5219 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5221 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5222 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5223 libraries to your link command:
5225 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5226 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5227 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5228 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5230 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5231 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5232 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5234 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5236 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5237 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5240 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5242 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5243 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5244 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5245 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5246 searched is system dependent.
5248 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5250 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5252 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5254 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5255 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5257 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5259 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5260 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5261 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5262 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5263 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5266 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5268 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5269 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5270 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5271 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5272 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5274 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5276 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5277 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5279 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5281 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5282 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5283 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5286 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5288 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5289 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5290 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5291 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5293 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5294 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5296 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5298 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5299 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5301 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5303 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5304 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5312 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5314 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5315 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5316 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5317 a more informative way.
5319 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5320 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5321 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5322 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5323 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5324 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5326 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5327 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5330 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5331 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5332 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5335 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5336 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5337 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5338 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5339 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5340 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5342 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5343 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5344 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5345 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5348 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5349 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5350 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5351 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5352 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5353 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5355 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5356 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5357 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5358 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5359 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5361 *** regexp functions
5363 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5364 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5365 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5367 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5368 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5369 with SCSH regular expressions.
5371 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5372 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5373 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5374 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5376 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5377 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5378 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5379 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5381 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5382 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5383 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5384 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5385 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5386 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5388 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5389 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5390 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5391 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5392 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5394 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5396 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5397 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5398 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5399 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5401 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5402 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5403 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5405 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5406 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5408 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5411 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5412 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5413 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5415 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5416 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5417 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
5419 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
5420 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
5421 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
5422 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
5423 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
5426 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5428 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
5429 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
5430 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
5431 used when different portions of a string are passed to
5432 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
5433 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
5435 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
5436 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
5437 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
5439 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
5440 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
5443 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
5444 and replace them with the contents of another string.
5446 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
5447 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
5448 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
5449 may be one of the following arguments:
5451 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
5453 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
5455 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
5456 the regexp match is written.
5458 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
5459 following the regexp match is written.
5461 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
5462 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
5465 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
5466 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
5467 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
5468 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
5469 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
5470 which should be matched against this regular expression.
5472 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
5475 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
5476 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
5477 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
5478 written out to PORT.
5480 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
5481 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
5482 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
5483 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
5484 will return after processing a single match.
5486 *** Match Structures
5488 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
5489 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
5490 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
5491 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
5492 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
5493 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
5496 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
5497 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
5498 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
5499 information about the original target string that was matched against a
5500 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
5502 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
5503 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
5504 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
5506 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
5507 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
5508 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
5509 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
5510 number N did not match, return `#f'.
5512 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
5513 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
5515 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
5516 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
5518 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
5519 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
5521 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
5522 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
5524 **** Function: match:count MATCH
5525 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
5526 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
5527 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
5529 **** Function: match:string MATCH
5530 Return the original TARGET string.
5532 *** Backslash Escapes
5534 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
5535 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
5536 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
5537 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
5538 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
5539 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
5541 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
5542 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
5543 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
5544 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
5545 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
5546 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
5547 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
5548 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
5550 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
5551 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
5552 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
5553 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
5554 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
5555 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
5556 each match a single backslash in the target string.
5558 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
5559 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
5560 return the resulting string.
5562 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
5563 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
5564 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
5565 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
5566 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
5567 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
5568 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
5569 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
5570 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
5571 translated to the single character `*'.
5573 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
5574 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
5575 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
5576 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
5577 consecutive backslashes:
5579 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
5581 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
5582 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
5583 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
5585 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
5586 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
5587 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
5588 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
5589 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
5590 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
5592 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
5594 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
5595 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
5596 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
5597 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
5598 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
5599 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
5600 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
5601 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
5602 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
5603 cumbersome escape syntax.
5605 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5607 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5609 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5611 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
5614 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
5616 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
5618 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
5621 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
5622 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
5623 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
5624 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
5625 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
5627 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
5628 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
5629 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
5630 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
5631 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
5632 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
5633 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
5636 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
5637 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
5638 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
5641 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
5642 `force-output' on every port open for output.
5644 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
5645 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
5646 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
5647 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
5648 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
5649 installed, you can say:
5651 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
5654 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5656 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
5657 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
5658 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
5659 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
5660 new dynamic roots and threads.
5663 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
5665 * Changes to the distribution.
5667 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
5669 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
5670 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
5671 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
5672 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
5673 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
5674 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
5675 programming language. These are packaged together because the
5676 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
5678 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
5681 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
5682 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
5687 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5689 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
5690 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
5692 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
5693 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
5694 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
5695 the (command-line) function.
5696 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
5697 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
5698 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
5700 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
5701 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
5702 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
5703 command line arguments
5704 -ds do -s script at this point
5705 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
5706 -h, --help display this help and exit
5707 -v, --version display version information and exit
5708 \ read arguments from following script lines
5710 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
5711 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
5713 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5716 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5720 (main (command-line))
5722 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
5724 ekko a speckled gecko
5726 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
5727 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
5728 following list of command-line arguments:
5730 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
5732 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
5733 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
5734 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
5735 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
5736 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5738 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
5740 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
5742 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
5743 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
5746 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
5747 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
5748 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
5749 SCSH) for circumventing them.
5751 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
5752 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
5753 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
5754 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
5756 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
5760 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5764 If the user invokes this script as follows:
5766 ekko a speckled gecko
5768 Unix expands this into
5770 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
5772 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
5773 read from the second line of the script, producing:
5775 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
5777 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
5778 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5780 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
5781 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
5782 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
5783 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
5784 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
5785 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
5786 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
5787 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
5788 it only terminates the argument list.)
5789 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
5790 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
5791 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
5792 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
5793 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
5794 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
5795 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
5796 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
5798 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5800 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
5801 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
5802 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
5803 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
5804 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
5806 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
5807 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
5808 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
5810 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
5812 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
5813 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
5814 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
5815 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
5818 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
5819 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5820 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5822 * Changes to Scheme functions
5824 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
5825 and disabled by default.
5827 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
5828 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
5829 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
5830 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
5832 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
5834 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
5836 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
5837 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
5839 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
5840 (read-set! keywords #f)
5842 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
5843 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
5844 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
5847 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
5848 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
5849 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
5852 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
5853 support for Scheme functions.
5855 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
5856 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
5857 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
5858 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
5861 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
5862 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
5863 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
5866 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
5867 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
5868 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
5871 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
5872 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
5873 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
5874 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
5875 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
5876 display the result as a prompt.
5877 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
5879 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
5880 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
5881 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
5884 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
5885 procedure of zero arguments.
5887 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
5888 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
5889 argument is bound in the current module.
5891 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
5892 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
5893 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
5894 public bindings into the current module.
5896 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
5897 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
5899 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
5900 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
5902 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
5903 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
5905 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
5906 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
5908 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
5909 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
5911 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
5912 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
5913 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
5914 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
5915 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
5917 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
5918 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
5919 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
5920 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
5922 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
5925 ** Changes to I/O functions
5927 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
5928 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
5929 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
5931 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
5932 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
5933 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
5935 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
5936 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
5938 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
5939 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
5940 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
5941 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
5943 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
5945 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
5946 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
5948 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
5949 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
5950 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
5951 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
5952 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
5955 'trim omit delimiter from result
5956 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
5957 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
5958 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
5960 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
5962 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
5963 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
5965 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
5966 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
5967 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
5968 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
5969 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
5971 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
5972 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
5973 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
5975 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
5976 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
5977 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
5978 above, and defaults to 'peek.
5980 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
5981 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
5983 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
5984 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
5986 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
5988 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
5989 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
5990 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
5991 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
5992 a delimiting character.
5993 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
5995 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
5996 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
5997 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
5998 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
5999 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6000 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6002 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6003 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6005 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6006 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6007 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6009 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6010 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6011 the array to read and write.
6013 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6014 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6017 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6019 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6022 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6023 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6024 Values for COMMAND are:
6026 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6027 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6028 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6029 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6030 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6031 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6032 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6033 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6035 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6037 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6038 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6039 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6040 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6041 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6042 corresponding return set will be the same.
6044 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6047 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6048 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6049 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6050 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6051 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6052 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6053 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6054 special file being created.
6056 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6057 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6059 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6060 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6061 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6062 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6063 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6064 and originating address.
6066 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6067 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6068 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6070 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6073 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6074 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6077 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6078 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6079 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6080 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6081 this function returns #f.
6083 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6084 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6085 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6088 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6089 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6090 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6093 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6094 a valid STATUS value.
6096 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6098 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6099 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6101 Component Accessor Setter
6102 ========================= ============ ============
6103 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6104 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6105 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6106 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6107 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6108 year tm:year set-tm:year
6109 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6110 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6111 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6112 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6113 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6115 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6116 describing the host system:
6119 ============================================== ================
6120 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6121 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6122 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6123 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6124 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6126 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6127 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6128 system's user database:
6131 ====================== =================
6132 user name passwd:name
6133 user password passwd:passwd
6136 real name passwd:gecos
6137 home directory passwd:dir
6138 shell program passwd:shell
6140 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6141 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6142 system's group database:
6145 ======================= ============
6146 group name group:name
6147 group password group:passwd
6149 group members group:mem
6151 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6152 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6156 ========================= ===============
6157 official name of host hostent:name
6158 alias list hostent:aliases
6159 host address type hostent:addrtype
6160 length of address hostent:length
6161 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6163 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6164 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6168 ========================= ===============
6169 official name of net netent:name
6170 alias list netent:aliases
6171 net number type netent:addrtype
6172 net number netent:net
6174 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6175 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6179 ========================= ===============
6180 official protocol name protoent:name
6181 alias list protoent:aliases
6182 protocol number protoent:proto
6184 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6185 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6189 ========================= ===============
6190 official service name servent:name
6191 alias list servent:aliases
6192 port number servent:port
6193 protocol to use servent:proto
6195 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6196 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6199 ======================================== ===============
6200 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6201 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6202 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6203 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6205 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6206 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6207 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6209 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6210 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6212 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6213 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6215 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6216 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6218 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6220 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6222 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6223 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6224 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6226 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6227 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6228 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6229 return the remaining characters as a string.
6231 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6232 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6233 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6235 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6237 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6239 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6242 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6245 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6246 and returns the array
6248 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6249 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6250 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6252 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6254 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6255 symbol's value from C code:
6257 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6258 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6259 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6260 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6262 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6263 without assigning them a value.
6265 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6266 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6267 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6269 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6270 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6271 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6273 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6274 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6276 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6277 doesn't actually care about that.
6279 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6280 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6281 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6283 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6284 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6285 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6286 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6287 which we have just created and initialized.
6289 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6290 should one occur. We call it like this:
6291 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6293 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6294 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6295 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6296 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6297 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6298 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6301 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6302 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6303 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6304 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6305 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6306 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6307 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6310 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6311 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6312 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6313 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6314 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6317 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6318 scm_internal_catch, except:
6320 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6321 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6322 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6323 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6326 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6327 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6328 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6330 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6331 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6332 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6333 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6336 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6337 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6338 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6340 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6341 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6342 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6343 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6344 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6346 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6347 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6348 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6350 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6351 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6352 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6354 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6355 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6357 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6358 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6359 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6362 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6363 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6364 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6365 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6366 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6367 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6368 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6371 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6372 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6374 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6375 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6376 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6377 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6378 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6381 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6382 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6384 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6385 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6388 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6389 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6391 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6394 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6395 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6396 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6397 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6398 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6399 given the following arguments:
6401 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6403 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6405 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6407 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6410 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6411 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6412 command-line arguments.
6414 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6415 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6416 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6417 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
6418 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
6419 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
6422 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6425 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
6426 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
6428 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
6429 rearranged slightly. They are now:
6431 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6432 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6433 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
6434 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
6436 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6437 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6439 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6440 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
6441 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6442 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
6444 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6445 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6447 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
6448 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
6450 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
6452 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
6453 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
6454 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
6457 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
6458 returns a port instead of an FD object.
6460 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
6461 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
6466 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
6469 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
6471 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
6472 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
6473 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
6474 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
6476 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
6478 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
6480 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
6481 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
6482 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
6483 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
6484 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
6485 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
6486 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
6487 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
6488 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
6489 for more information.
6491 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
6492 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
6494 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
6495 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
6496 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
6497 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
6498 following two lines at the top of the file:
6500 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6503 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
6504 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
6505 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
6507 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
6509 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6511 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
6514 (display (car args))
6515 (if (pair? (cdr args))
6517 (loop (cdr args)))))
6520 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
6521 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
6522 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
6523 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
6524 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
6525 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
6529 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
6532 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
6535 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
6537 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
6538 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
6539 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
6540 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
6541 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
6544 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
6545 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
6546 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
6547 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
6548 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
6551 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
6554 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
6555 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
6556 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
6559 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
6560 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
6561 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
6563 to see a backtrace, and
6564 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
6565 to see them by default.
6569 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
6571 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
6573 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
6574 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
6577 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
6578 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
6579 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
6580 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
6583 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
6584 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
6585 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
6586 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
6587 functions which inspired them.
6589 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
6590 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
6594 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
6596 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
6598 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
6599 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
6602 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
6603 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
6604 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
6606 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
6607 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
6608 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
6609 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
6610 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
6612 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
6614 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
6615 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
6616 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
6619 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
6622 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
6624 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
6625 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
6626 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
6627 above should serve their purposes.
6629 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
6630 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
6631 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
6632 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
6634 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
6637 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
6638 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
6639 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
6640 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
6642 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
6643 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
6644 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
6645 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
6647 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
6648 for the `read' function.
6651 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
6652 to that of `integer?'.
6654 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
6655 use the R4RS names for these functions.
6657 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
6658 it simply returns the object's property list.
6660 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
6661 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
6662 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
6663 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
6665 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
6667 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
6670 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
6672 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
6673 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
6675 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
6677 void (*main_func) (),
6680 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
6681 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
6682 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
6683 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
6684 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
6686 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
6687 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
6688 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
6689 know which arguments have been processed.
6691 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
6692 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
6693 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
6694 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
6695 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
6697 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
6698 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
6699 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
6700 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
6701 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
6702 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
6703 people from making that mistake.
6705 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
6706 convenient ways to override these when desired.
6708 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
6710 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
6714 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
6717 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
6718 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
6719 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
6720 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
6723 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
6724 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
6725 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
6726 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
6729 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
6730 have been added to the Guile library.
6732 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
6733 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
6734 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
6737 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
6738 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
6739 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
6741 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
6742 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
6743 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
6744 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
6745 argument from the list.
6748 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
6751 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
6752 null-terminated string, and returns it.
6754 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
6755 to a Scheme port object.
6757 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
6758 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
6763 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
6765 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
6766 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
6767 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
6768 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
6769 code as a special datatype.
6771 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
6772 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
6773 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
6774 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
6775 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
6778 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
6779 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
6780 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
6781 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
6782 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
6784 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
6787 Copyright information:
6789 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
6791 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
6792 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
6793 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
6794 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
6796 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
6797 of this document, or of portions of it,
6798 under the above conditions, provided also that they
6799 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
6804 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"