1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
8 Changes in 2.0.3 (since 2.0.2):
12 ** Guile has a new optimizer, `peval'.
14 `Peval' is a partial evaluator that performs constant folding, dead code
15 elimination, copy propagation, and inlining. By default it runs on
16 every piece of code that Guile compiles, to fold computations that can
17 happen at compile-time, so they don't have to happen at runtime.
19 If we did our job right, the only impact you would see would be your
20 programs getting faster. But if you notice slowdowns or bloated code,
21 please send a mail to bug-guile@gnu.org with details.
23 Thanks to William R. Cook, Oscar Waddell, and Kent Dybvig for inspiring
24 peval and its implementation.
26 You can see what peval does on a given piece of code by running the new
27 `,optimize' REPL meta-command, and comparing it to the output of
28 `,expand'. See "Compile Commands" in the manual, for more.
30 ** Fewer calls to `stat'.
32 Guile now stats only the .go file and the .scm file when loading a fresh
37 ** New module: `(web client)', a simple synchronous web client.
39 See "Web Client" in the manual, for more.
41 ** Users can now install compiled `.go' files.
43 See "Installing Site Packages" in the manual.
45 ** Remove Front-Cover and Back-Cover text from the manual.
47 The manual is still under the GNU Free Documentation License, but no
48 longer has any invariant sections.
50 ** More helpful `guild help'.
52 `guild' is Guile's multi-tool, for use in shell scripting. Now it has a
53 nicer interface for querying the set of existing commands, and getting
54 help on those commands. Try it out and see!
56 ** New macro: `define-syntax-rule'
58 `define-syntax-rule' is a shorthand to make a `syntax-rules' macro with
59 one clause. See "Syntax Rules" in the manual, for more.
61 ** The `,time' REPL meta-command now has more precision.
63 The output of this command now has microsecond precision, instead of
64 10-millisecond precision.
66 ** `(ice-9 match)' can now match records.
68 See "Pattern Matching" in the manual, for more on matching records.
70 ** New module: `(language tree-il debug)'.
72 This module provides a tree-il verifier. This is useful for people that
73 generate tree-il, usually as part of a language compiler.
75 ** New functions: `scm_is_exact', `scm_is_inexact'.
77 These provide a nice C interface for Scheme's `exact?' and `inexact?',
82 See the git log (or the ChangeLog) for more details on these bugs.
84 ** Fix order of importing modules and resolving duplicates handlers.
85 ** Fix a number of bugs involving extended (merged) generics.
86 ** Fix invocation of merge-generics duplicate handler.
87 ** Fix write beyond array end in arrays.c.
88 ** Fix read beyond end of hashtable size array in hashtab.c.
89 ** (web http): Locale-independent parsing and serialization of dates.
90 ** Ensure presence of Host header in HTTP/1.1 requests.
91 ** Fix take-right and drop-right for improper lists.
92 ** Fix leak in get_current_locale().
93 ** Fix recursive define-inlinable expansions.
94 ** Check that srfi-1 procedure arguments are procedures.
95 ** Fix r6rs `map' for multiple returns.
96 ** Fix scm_tmpfile leak on POSIX platforms.
97 ** Fix a couple of leaks (objcode->bytecode, make-boot-program).
98 ** Fix guile-lib back-compatibility for module-stexi-documentation.
99 ** Fix --listen option to allow other ports.
100 ** Fix scm_to_latin1_stringn for substrings.
101 ** Fix compilation of untyped arrays of rank not 1.
102 ** Fix unparse-tree-il of <dynset>.
103 ** Fix reading of #||||#.
104 ** Fix segfault in GOOPS when class fields are redefined.
105 ** Prefer poll(2) over select(2) to allow file descriptors above FD_SETSIZE.
108 Changes in 2.0.2 (since 2.0.1):
112 ** `guile-tools' renamed to `guild'
114 The new name is shorter. Its intended future use is for a CPAN-like
115 system for Guile wizards and journeyfolk to band together to share code;
116 hence the name. `guile-tools' is provided as a backward-compatible
117 symbolic link. See "Using Guile Tools" in the manual, for more.
119 ** New control operators: `shift' and `reset'
121 See "Shift and Reset" in the manual, for more information.
123 ** `while' as an expression
125 Previously the return value of `while' was unspecified. Now its
126 values are specified both in the case of normal termination, and via
127 termination by invoking `break', possibly with arguments. See "while
128 do" in the manual for more.
130 ** Disallow access to handles of weak hash tables
132 `hash-get-handle' and `hash-create-handle!' are no longer permitted to
133 be called on weak hash tables, because the fields in a weak handle could
134 be nulled out by the garbage collector at any time, but yet they are
135 otherwise indistinguishable from pairs. Use `hash-ref' and `hash-set!'
138 ** More precision for `get-internal-run-time', `get-internal-real-time'
140 On 64-bit systems which support POSIX clocks, Guile's internal timing
141 procedures offer nanosecond resolution instead of the 10-millisecond
142 resolution previously available. 32-bit systems now use 1-millisecond
145 ** Guile now measures time spent in GC
147 `gc-stats' now returns a meaningful value for `gc-time-taken'.
151 The statprof profiler now exports a `gcprof' procedure, driven by the
152 `after-gc-hook', to see which parts of your program are causing GC. Let
153 us know if you find it useful.
155 ** `map', `for-each' and some others now implemented in Scheme
157 We would not mention this in NEWS, as it is not a user-visible change,
158 if it were not for one thing: `map' and `for-each' are no longer
159 primitive generics. Instead they are normal bindings, which can be
160 wrapped by normal generics. This fixes some modularity issues between
161 core `map', SRFI-1 `map', and GOOPS.
163 Also it's pretty cool that we can do this without a performance impact.
165 ** Add `scm_peek_byte_or_eof'.
167 This helper is like `scm_peek_char_or_eof', but for bytes instead of
170 ** Implement #:stop-at-first-non-option option for getopt-long
172 See "getopt-long Reference" in the manual, for more information.
174 ** Improve R6RS conformance for conditions in the I/O libraries
176 The `(rnrs io simple)' module now raises the correct R6RS conditions in
177 error cases. `(rnrs io ports)' is also more correct now, though it is
178 still a work in progress.
180 ** All deprecated routines emit warnings
182 A few deprecated routines were lacking deprecation warnings. This has
187 ** Constants in compiled code now share state better
189 Constants with shared state, like `("foo")' and `"foo"', now share state
190 as much as possible, in the entire compilation unit. This cuts compiled
191 `.go' file sizes in half, generally, and speeds startup.
193 ** VLists: optimize `vlist-fold-right', and add `vhash-fold-right'
195 These procedures are now twice as fast as they were.
197 ** UTF-8 ports to bypass `iconv' entirely
199 This reduces memory usage in a very common case.
203 The compiler is now about 40% faster. (Note that this is only the case
204 once the compiler is itself compiled, so the build still takes as long
209 Some assertions that were mostly useful for sanity-checks on the
210 bytecode compiler are now off for both "regular" and "debug" engines.
211 This together with a fix to cache a TLS access and some other tweaks
212 improve the VM's performance by about 20%.
214 ** SRFI-1 list-set optimizations
216 lset-adjoin and lset-union now have fast paths for eq? sets.
218 ** `memq', `memv' optimizations
220 These procedures are now at least twice as fast than in 2.0.1.
224 ** Deprecate scm_whash API
226 `scm_whash_get_handle', `SCM_WHASHFOUNDP', `SCM_WHASHREF',
227 `SCM_WHASHSET', `scm_whash_create_handle', `scm_whash_lookup', and
228 `scm_whash_insert' are now deprecated. Use the normal hash table API
231 ** Deprecate scm_struct_table
233 `SCM_STRUCT_TABLE_NAME', `SCM_SET_STRUCT_TABLE_NAME',
234 `SCM_STRUCT_TABLE_CLASS', `SCM_SET_STRUCT_TABLE_CLASS',
235 `scm_struct_table', and `scm_struct_create_handle' are now deprecated.
236 These routines formed part of the internals of the map between structs
239 ** Deprecate scm_internal_dynamic_wind
241 The `scm_t_inner' type and `scm_internal_dynamic_wind' are deprecated,
242 as the `scm_dynwind' API is better, and this API encourages users to
243 stuff SCM values into pointers.
245 ** Deprecate scm_immutable_cell, scm_immutable_double_cell
247 These routines are deprecated, as the GC_STUBBORN API doesn't do
252 Andreas Rottman kindly transcribed the missing parts of the `(rnrs io
253 ports)' documentation from the R6RS documentation. Thanks Andreas!
257 ** Fix double-loading of script in -ds case
258 ** -x error message fix
259 ** iconveh-related cross-compilation fixes
260 ** Fix small integer return value packing on big endian machines.
261 ** Fix hash-set! in weak-value table from non-immediate to immediate
262 ** Fix call-with-input-file & relatives for multiple values
263 ** Fix `hash' for inf and nan
264 ** Fix libguile internal type errors caught by typing-strictness==2
265 ** Fix compile error in MinGW fstat socket detection
266 ** Fix generation of auto-compiled file names on MinGW
267 ** Fix multithreaded access to internal hash tables
268 ** Emit a 1-based line number in error messages
269 ** Fix define-module ordering
270 ** Fix several POSIX functions to use the locale encoding
271 ** Add type and range checks to the complex generalized vector accessors
272 ** Fix unaligned accesses for bytevectors of complex numbers
274 ** Fix erroneous VM stack overflow for canceled threads
277 Changes in 2.0.1 (since 2.0.0):
281 ** guile.m4 supports linking with rpath
283 The GUILE_FLAGS macro now sets GUILE_LIBS and GUILE_LTLIBS, which
284 include appropriate directives to the linker to include libguile-2.0.so
285 in the runtime library lookup path.
287 ** `begin' expands macros in its body before other expressions
289 This enables support for programs like the following:
294 (or (= x 0) (odd? (- x 1)))))
297 ((odd? x) (not (even? x)))))
300 ** REPL reader usability enhancements
302 The REPL now flushes input after a read error, which should prevent one
303 error from causing other errors. The REPL also now interprets comments
306 ** REPL output has configurable width
308 The REPL now defaults to output with the current terminal's width, in
309 columns. See "Debug Commands" in the manual for more information on
312 ** Better C access to the module system
314 Guile now has convenient C accessors to look up variables or values in
315 modules and their public interfaces. See `scm_c_public_ref' and friends
316 in "Accessing Modules from C" in the manual.
318 ** Added `scm_call_5', `scm_call_6'
320 See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
322 ** Added `scm_from_latin1_keyword', `scm_from_utf8_keyword'
324 See "Keyword Procedures" in the manual, for more. Note that
325 `scm_from_locale_keyword' should not be used when the name is a C string
328 ** R6RS unicode and string I/O work
330 Added efficient implementations of `get-string-n' and `get-string-n!'
331 for binary ports. Exported `current-input-port', `current-output-port'
332 and `current-error-port' from `(rnrs io ports)', and enhanced support
335 ** Added `pointer->scm', `scm->pointer' to `(system foreign)'
337 These procedure are useful if one needs to pass and receive SCM values
338 to and from foreign functions. See "Foreign Variables" in the manual,
341 ** Added `heap-allocated-since-gc' to `(gc-stats)'
343 Also fixed the long-standing bug in the REPL `,stat' command.
345 ** Add `on-error' REPL option
347 This option controls what happens when an error occurs at the REPL, and
348 defaults to `debug', indicating that Guile should enter the debugger.
349 Other values include `report', which will simply print a backtrace
350 without entering the debugger. See "System Commands" in the manual.
352 ** Enforce immutability of string literals
354 Attempting to mutate a string literal now causes a runtime error.
356 ** Fix pthread redirection
358 Guile 2.0.0 shipped with headers that, if configured with pthread
359 support, would re-define `pthread_create', `pthread_join', and other API
360 to redirect to the BDW-GC wrappers, `GC_pthread_create', etc. This was
361 unintended, and not necessary: because threads must enter Guile with
362 `scm_with_guile', Guile can handle thread registration itself, without
363 needing to make the GC aware of all threads. This oversight has been
366 ** `with-continuation-barrier' now unwinds on `quit'
368 A throw to `quit' in a continuation barrier will cause Guile to exit.
369 Before, it would do so before unwinding to the barrier, which would
370 prevent cleanup handlers from running. This has been fixed so that it
371 exits only after unwinding.
373 ** `string->pointer' and `pointer->string' have optional encoding arg
375 This allows users of the FFI to more easily deal in strings with
376 particular (non-locale) encodings, like "utf-8". See "Void Pointers and
377 Byte Access" in the manual, for more.
379 ** R6RS fixnum arithmetic optimizations
381 R6RS fixnum operations are are still slower than generic arithmetic,
384 ** New procedure: `define-inlinable'
386 See "Inlinable Procedures" in the manual, for more.
388 ** New procedure: `exact-integer-sqrt'
390 See "Integer Operations" in the manual, for more.
392 ** "Extended read syntax" for symbols parses better
394 In #{foo}# symbols, backslashes are now treated as escapes, as the
395 symbol-printing code intended. Additionally, "\x" within #{foo}# is now
396 interpreted as starting an R6RS hex escape. This is backward compatible
397 because the symbol printer would never produce a "\x" before. The
398 printer also works better too.
400 ** Added `--fresh-auto-compile' option
402 This allows a user to invalidate the auto-compilation cache. It's
403 usually not needed. See "Compilation" in the manual, for a discussion.
407 ** GOOPS documentation updates
411 Thanks to Mark Harig for improvements to guile.1.
413 ** SRFI-23 documented
415 The humble `error' SRFI now has an entry in the manual.
419 ** `(ice-9 binary-ports)': "R6RS I/O Ports", in the manual
420 ** `(ice-9 eval-string)': "Fly Evaluation", in the manual
421 ** `(ice-9 command-line)', not documented yet
425 ** Fixed `iconv_t' memory leak on close-port
426 ** Fixed some leaks with weak hash tables
427 ** Export `vhash-delq' and `vhash-delv' from `(ice-9 vlist)'
428 ** `after-gc-hook' works again
429 ** `define-record-type' now allowed in nested contexts
430 ** `exact-integer-sqrt' now handles large integers correctly
431 ** Fixed C extension examples in manual
432 ** `vhash-delete' honors HASH argument
433 ** Make `locale-digit-grouping' more robust
434 ** Default exception printer robustness fixes
435 ** Fix presence of non-I CPPFLAGS in `guile-2.0.pc'
436 ** `read' updates line/column numbers when reading SCSH block comments
437 ** Fix imports of multiple custom interfaces of same module
438 ** Fix encoding scanning for non-seekable ports
439 ** Fix `setter' when called with a non-setter generic
440 ** Fix f32 and f64 bytevectors to not accept rationals
441 ** Fix description of the R6RS `finite?' in manual
442 ** Quotient, remainder and modulo accept inexact integers again
443 ** Fix `continue' within `while' to take zero arguments
444 ** Fix alignment for structures in FFI
445 ** Fix port-filename of stdin, stdout, stderr to match the docs
446 ** Fix weak hash table-related bug in `define-wrapped-pointer-type'
447 ** Fix partial continuation application with pending procedure calls
448 ** scm_{to,from}_locale_string use current locale, not current ports
449 ** Fix thread cleanup, by using a pthread_key destructor
450 ** Fix `quit' at the REPL
451 ** Fix a failure to sync regs in vm bytevector ops
452 ** Fix (texinfo reflection) to handle nested structures like syntax patterns
453 ** Fix stexi->html double translation
454 ** Fix tree-il->scheme fix for <prompt>
455 ** Fix compilation of <prompt> in <fix> in single-value context
456 ** Fix race condition in ensure-writable-dir
457 ** Fix error message on ,disassemble "non-procedure"
458 ** Fix prompt and abort with the boot evaluator
459 ** Fix `procedure->pointer' for functions returning `void'
460 ** Fix error reporting in dynamic-pointer
461 ** Fix problems detecting coding: in block comments
462 ** Fix duplicate load-path and load-compiled-path in compilation environment
463 ** Add fallback read(2) suppport for .go files if mmap(2) unavailable
464 ** Fix c32vector-set!, c64vector-set!
465 ** Fix mistakenly deprecated read syntax for uniform complex vectors
466 ** Fix parsing of exact numbers with negative exponents
467 ** Ignore SIGPIPE in (system repl server)
468 ** Fix optional second arg to R6RS log function
469 ** Fix R6RS `assert' to return true value.
470 ** Fix fencepost error when seeking in bytevector input ports
471 ** Gracefully handle `setlocale' errors when starting the REPL
472 ** Improve support of the `--disable-posix' configure option
473 ** Make sure R6RS binary ports pass `binary-port?' regardless of the locale
474 ** Gracefully handle unterminated UTF-8 sequences instead of hitting an `assert'
478 Changes in 2.0.0 (changes since the 1.8.x series):
480 * New modules (see the manual for details)
482 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
483 ** `(srfi srfi-27)', sources of random bits
484 ** `(srfi srfi-38)', External Representation for Data With Shared Structure
485 ** `(srfi srfi-42)', eager comprehensions
486 ** `(srfi srfi-45)', primitives for expressing iterative lazy algorithms
487 ** `(srfi srfi-67)', compare procedures
488 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
489 ** `(ice-9 futures)', fine-grain parallelism
490 ** `(rnrs bytevectors)', the R6RS bytevector API
491 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
492 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
493 ** `(ice-9 vlist)', lists with constant-time random access; hash lists
494 ** `(system foreign)', foreign function interface
495 ** `(sxml match)', a pattern matcher for SXML
496 ** `(srfi srfi-9 gnu)', extensions to the SRFI-9 record library
497 ** `(system vm coverage)', a line-by-line code coverage library
498 ** `(web uri)', URI data type, parser, and unparser
499 ** `(web http)', HTTP header parsers and unparsers
500 ** `(web request)', HTTP request data type, reader, and writer
501 ** `(web response)', HTTP response data type, reader, and writer
502 ** `(web server)', Generic HTTP server
503 ** `(ice-9 poll)', a poll wrapper
504 ** `(web server http)', HTTP-over-TCP web server implementation
506 ** Replaced `(ice-9 match)' with Alex Shinn's compatible, hygienic matcher.
508 Guile's copy of Andrew K. Wright's `match' library has been replaced by
509 a compatible hygienic implementation by Alex Shinn. It is now
510 documented, see "Pattern Matching" in the manual.
512 Compared to Andrew K. Wright's `match', the new `match' lacks
513 `match-define', `match:error-control', `match:set-error-control',
514 `match:error', `match:set-error', and all structure-related procedures.
516 ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
518 The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
519 toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
520 "Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
522 ** Integration of lalr-scm, a parser generator
524 Guile has included Dominique Boucher's fine `lalr-scm' parser generator
525 as `(system base lalr)'. See "LALR(1) Parsing" in the manual, for more
528 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
530 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
532 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
533 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
535 ** Evaluating Scheme code does not use the C stack.
537 Besides when compiling Guile itself, Guile no longer uses a recursive C
538 function as an evaluator. This obviates the need to check the C stack
539 pointer for overflow. Continuations still capture the C stack, however.
541 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
542 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
544 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
545 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
546 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
549 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
551 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. See
552 "Using Guile Interactively" in the manual, for more information.
554 ** Remove old Emacs interface
556 Guile had an unused `--emacs' command line argument that was supposed to
557 help when running Guile inside Emacs. This option has been removed, and
558 the helper functions `named-module-use!' and `load-emacs-interface' have
561 ** Add `(system repl server)' module and `--listen' command-line argument
563 The `(system repl server)' module exposes procedures to listen on
564 sockets for connections, and serve REPLs to those clients. The --listen
565 command-line argument allows any Guile program to thus be remotely
568 See "Invoking Guile" for more information on `--listen'.
570 ** Command line additions
572 The guile binary now supports a new switch "-x", which can be used to
573 extend the list of filename extensions tried when loading files
576 ** New reader options: `square-brackets', `r6rs-hex-escapes',
579 The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
580 `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
581 parentheses. This option is on by default.
583 When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
584 will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS. R6RS string
585 escape sequences are incompatible with Guile's existing escapes, though,
586 so this option is off by default.
588 Additionally, Guile follows the R6RS newline escaping rules when the
589 `hungry-eol-escapes' option is enabled.
591 See "String Syntax" in the manual, for more information.
593 ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
595 The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
596 profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
597 time. See `,help profile' for more information.
599 Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
600 during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
602 ** Recursive debugging REPL on error
604 When Guile sees an error at the REPL, instead of saving the stack, Guile
605 will directly enter a recursive REPL in the dynamic context of the
606 error. See "Error Handling" in the manual, for more information.
608 A recursive REPL is the same as any other REPL, except that it
609 has been augmented with debugging information, so that one can inspect
610 the context of the error. The debugger has been integrated with the REPL
611 via a set of debugging meta-commands.
613 For example, one may access a backtrace with `,backtrace' (or
614 `,bt'). See "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for more
617 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
619 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
622 ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
624 Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
625 `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
626 include `/path/to/lib'.
628 ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
630 Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
633 ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
635 When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
636 version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
637 allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
638 installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
641 ** Value history in the REPL on by default
643 By default, the REPL will save computed values in variables like `$1',
644 `$2', and the like. There are programmatic and interactive interfaces to
645 control this. See "Value History" in the manual, for more information.
647 ** Readline tab completion for arguments
649 When readline is enabled, tab completion works for arguments too, not
650 just for the operator position.
652 ** Expression-oriented readline history
654 Guile's readline history now tries to operate on expressions instead of
655 input lines. Let us know what you think!
657 ** Interactive Guile follows GNU conventions
659 As recommended by the GPL, Guile now shows a brief copyright and
660 warranty disclaimer on startup, along with pointers to more information.
662 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
664 ** Support for R6RS libraries
666 The `library' and `import' forms from the latest Scheme report have been
667 added to Guile, in such a way that R6RS libraries share a namespace with
668 Guile modules. R6RS modules may import Guile modules, and are available
669 for Guile modules to import via use-modules and all the rest. See "R6RS
670 Libraries" in the manual for more information.
672 ** Implementations of R6RS libraries
674 Guile now has implementations for all of the libraries defined in the
675 R6RS. Thanks to Julian Graham for this excellent hack. See "R6RS
676 Standard Libraries" in the manual for a full list of libraries.
678 ** Partial R6RS compatibility
680 Guile now has enough support for R6RS to run a reasonably large subset
683 Guile is not fully R6RS compatible. Many incompatibilities are simply
684 bugs, though some parts of Guile will remain R6RS-incompatible for the
685 foreseeable future. See "R6RS Incompatibilities" in the manual, for more
688 Please contact bug-guile@gnu.org if you have found an issue not
689 mentioned in that compatibility list.
691 ** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
693 Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
694 still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
695 compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
696 primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
698 This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
699 to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
700 providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
701 code, and simplifying debugging.
703 As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
704 representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
706 There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
707 takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
708 information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
709 both of these situations.
711 There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
712 public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
713 we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
714 contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
716 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
718 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
719 not apply to the compiler.
721 ** No more `local-eval'
723 `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
724 lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
725 environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
726 and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
729 If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
730 own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
733 ** Scheme source files will now be compiled automatically.
735 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
736 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
737 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
739 Note that this mechanism depends on the timestamp of the .go file being
740 newer than that of the .scm file; if the .scm or .go files are moved
741 after installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
744 Auto-compiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
745 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
746 will be created if needed.
748 To inhibit automatic compilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
749 variable to 0, or pass --no-auto-compile on the Guile command line.
751 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
753 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
754 in the next prerelease.
756 ** New POSIX procedure: `getsid'
758 Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
760 ** New POSIX procedure: `getaddrinfo'
762 Scheme binding for the `getaddrinfo' C library function.
764 ** Multicast socket options
766 Support was added for the IP_MULTICAST_TTL and IP_MULTICAST_IF socket
767 options. See "Network Sockets and Communication" in the manual, for
770 ** `recv!', `recvfrom!', `send', `sendto' now deal in bytevectors
772 These socket procedures now take bytevectors as arguments, instead of
773 strings. There is some deprecated string support, however.
775 ** New GNU procedures: `setaffinity' and `getaffinity'.
777 See "Processes" in the manual, for more information.
779 ** New procedures: `compose', `negate', and `const'
781 See "Higher-Order Functions" in the manual, for more information.
783 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
785 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
786 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
787 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments'
789 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
790 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
791 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
792 procedures' docstrings for more information.
794 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
795 combining arity and formals. For example:
797 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
798 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
800 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
803 ** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
805 These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are
806 no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you
807 probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will
808 probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway).
810 ** New language: ECMAScript
812 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
813 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
814 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
815 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
817 ** New language: Brainfuck
819 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
820 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
821 languages. See the manual for details, or
822 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
823 Brainfuck language itself.
825 ** New language: Elisp
827 Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can
828 now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel
829 Kraft and Brian Templeton, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
831 ** Better documentation infrastructure for macros
833 It is now possible to introspect on the type of a macro, e.g.
834 syntax-rules, identifier-syntax, etc, and extract information about that
835 macro, such as the syntax-rules patterns or the defmacro arguments.
836 `(texinfo reflection)' takes advantage of this to give better macro
839 ** Support for arbitrary procedure metadata
841 Building on its support for docstrings, Guile now supports multiple
842 docstrings, adding them to the tail of a compiled procedure's
843 properties. For example:
849 (procedure-properties foo)
850 => ((name . foo) (documentation . "one") (documentation . "two"))
852 Also, vectors of pairs are now treated as additional metadata entries:
855 #((quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
857 (procedure-properties bar)
858 => ((name . bar) (quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
860 This allows arbitrary literals to be embedded as metadata in a compiled
863 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
866 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
868 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
869 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
872 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
873 (define (helper x) ...)
875 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
877 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
880 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
881 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
883 ** Support for version information in Guile's `module' form
885 Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. See "R6RS Version
886 References", "General Information about Modules", "Using Guile Modules",
887 and "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual for more information.
889 ** Support for renaming bindings on module export
891 Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
892 export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
893 should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
894 for more information.
896 ** New procedure: `module-export-all!'
898 This procedure exports all current and future bindings from a module.
899 Use as `(module-export-all! (current-module))'.
901 ** New procedure `reload-module', and `,reload' REPL command
903 See "Module System Reflection" and "Module Commands" in the manual, for
906 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
908 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. See "Eval When"
909 in the manual, for more information.
911 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
914 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
915 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
917 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
919 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
921 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
923 It is possible to circumvent this restriction with e.g.
924 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. Contact the list if you
927 ** Support for `letrec*'
929 Guile now supports `letrec*', a recursive lexical binding operator in
930 which the identifiers are bound in order. See "Local Bindings" in the
931 manual, for more details.
933 ** Internal definitions now expand to `letrec*'
935 Following the R6RS, internal definitions now expand to letrec* instead
936 of letrec. The following program is invalid for R5RS, but valid for
941 (define baz (+ bar 20))
944 ;; R5RS and Guile <= 1.8:
945 (foo) => Unbound variable: bar
946 ;; R6RS and Guile >= 2.0:
949 This change should not affect correct R5RS programs, or programs written
950 in earlier Guile dialects.
952 ** Macro expansion produces structures instead of s-expressions
954 In the olden days, macroexpanding an s-expression would yield another
955 s-expression. Though the lexical variables were renamed, expansions of
956 core forms like `if' and `begin' were still non-hygienic, as they relied
957 on the toplevel definitions of `if' et al being the conventional ones.
959 The solution is to expand to structures instead of s-expressions. There
960 is an `if' structure, a `begin' structure, a `toplevel-ref' structure,
961 etc. The expander already did this for compilation, producing Tree-IL
962 directly; it has been changed now to do so when expanding for the
965 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
967 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
968 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
971 (define (helper x) ...)
972 (define-macro (foo bar)
975 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
978 (define (helper x) ...)
979 (define-macro (foo bar)
980 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
982 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
986 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
988 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
990 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
997 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
998 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
1001 ** Support for settable identifier syntax
1003 Following the R6RS, "variable transformers" are settable
1004 identifier-syntax. See "Identifier macros" in the manual, for more
1007 ** syntax-case treats `_' as a placeholder
1009 Following R6RS, a `_' in a syntax-rules or syntax-case pattern matches
1010 anything, and binds no pattern variables. Unlike the R6RS, Guile also
1011 permits `_' to be in the literals list for a pattern.
1013 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
1015 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
1019 (define-macro (ref x) x)
1022 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
1023 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
1024 macros before code that uses them.
1026 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
1029 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
1031 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
1032 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
1033 (double-literal 2) => 4
1035 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
1036 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
1037 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
1039 (eval-when (load compile eval)
1040 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
1041 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
1042 (double-literal 2) => 4
1044 See the documentation for eval-when for more information.
1046 ** `macroexpand' produces structures, not S-expressions.
1048 Given the need to maintain referential transparency, both lexically and
1049 modular, the result of expanding Scheme expressions is no longer itself
1050 an s-expression. If you want a human-readable approximation of the
1051 result of `macroexpand', call `tree-il->scheme' from `(language
1054 ** Removed function: `macroexpand-1'
1056 It is unclear how to implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though
1057 PLT Scheme does prove that it is possible.
1059 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
1061 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
1062 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
1063 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
1065 ** Incompatible change to #'
1067 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
1068 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
1069 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
1070 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
1072 ** `unquote' and `unquote-splicing' accept multiple expressions
1074 As per the R6RS, these syntax operators can now accept any number of
1075 expressions to unquote.
1077 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
1079 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
1082 ** Prompts: Delimited, composable continuations
1084 Guile now has prompts as part of its primitive language. See "Prompts"
1085 in the manual, for more information.
1087 Expressions entered in at the REPL, or from the command line, are
1088 surrounded by a prompt with the default prompt tag.
1090 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
1091 works (with compiled procedures)
1093 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
1094 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
1095 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
1096 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
1098 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
1099 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
1100 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
1101 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
1102 number of stack frames.
1104 ** Backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
1105 active in the current continuation
1107 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
1108 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
1109 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
1110 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
1112 ** `positions' reader option enabled by default
1114 This change allows primitive-load without --auto-compile to also
1115 propagate source information through the expander, for better errors and
1116 to let macros know their source locations. The compiler was already
1117 turning it on anyway.
1119 ** New macro: `current-source-location'
1121 The macro returns the current source location (to be documented).
1123 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
1124 through to the expanded code
1126 This should result in better backtraces.
1128 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
1130 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
1132 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
1134 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
1135 default. Use the `(ice-9 curried-definitions)' module to get back the
1138 ** New procedure, `define!'
1140 `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
1141 and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
1142 programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
1143 less verbose than `module-define!'.
1145 ** All modules have names now
1147 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
1148 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
1149 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
1150 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
1152 ** The module namespace is now separate from the value namespace
1154 It was a little-known implementation detail of Guile's module system
1155 that it was built on a single hierarchical namespace of values -- that
1156 if there was a module named `(foo bar)', then in the module named
1157 `(foo)' there was a binding from `bar' to the `(foo bar)' module.
1159 This was a neat trick, but presented a number of problems. One problem
1160 was that the bindings in a module were not apparent from the module
1161 itself; perhaps the `(foo)' module had a private binding for `bar', and
1162 then an external contributor defined `(foo bar)'. In the end there can
1163 be only one binding, so one of the two will see the wrong thing, and
1164 produce an obtuse error of unclear provenance.
1166 Also, the public interface of a module was also bound in the value
1167 namespace, as `%module-public-interface'. This was a hack from the early
1168 days of Guile's modules.
1170 Both of these warts have been fixed by the addition of fields in the
1171 `module' data type. Access to modules and their interfaces from the
1172 value namespace has been deprecated, and all accessors use the new
1173 record accessors appropriately.
1175 When Guile is built with support for deprecated code, as is the default,
1176 the value namespace is still searched for modules and public interfaces,
1177 and a deprecation warning is raised as appropriate.
1179 Finally, to support lazy loading of modules as one used to be able to do
1180 with module binder procedures, Guile now has submodule binders, called
1181 if a given submodule is not found. See boot-9.scm for more information.
1183 ** New procedures: module-ref-submodule, module-define-submodule,
1184 nested-ref-module, nested-define-module!, local-ref-module,
1187 These new accessors are like their bare variants, but operate on
1188 namespaces instead of values.
1190 ** The (app modules) module tree is officially deprecated
1192 It used to be that one could access a module named `(foo bar)' via
1193 `(nested-ref the-root-module '(app modules foo bar))'. The `(app
1194 modules)' bit was a never-used and never-documented abstraction, and has
1195 been deprecated. See the following mail for a full discussion:
1197 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2010-04/msg00168.html
1199 The `%app' binding is also deprecated.
1201 ** `module-filename' field and accessor
1203 Modules now record the file in which they are defined. This field may be
1204 accessed with the new `module-filename' procedure.
1206 ** Modules load within a known environment
1208 It takes a few procedure calls to define a module, and those procedure
1209 calls need to be in scope. Now we ensure that the current module when
1210 loading a module is one that has the needed bindings, instead of relying
1213 ** `load' is a macro (!) that resolves paths relative to source file dir
1215 The familiar Schem `load' procedure is now a macro that captures the
1216 name of the source file being expanded, and dispatches to the new
1217 `load-in-vicinity'. Referencing `load' by bare name returns a closure
1218 that embeds the current source file name.
1220 This fix allows `load' of relative paths to be resolved with respect to
1221 the location of the file that calls `load'.
1223 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
1225 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
1226 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
1227 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
1229 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
1230 values to the expected number
1232 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
1233 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
1234 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
1236 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
1237 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
1238 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
1239 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
1241 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
1242 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
1243 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
1245 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
1248 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
1250 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
1252 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
1253 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
1254 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
1255 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
1256 the interpreter would proceed.
1258 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
1259 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
1260 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
1261 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
1263 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
1265 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
1266 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
1267 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
1268 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
1269 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
1270 you to contact the Guile developers.
1272 ** Hygienic macros documented as the primary syntactic extension mechanism.
1274 The macro documentation was finally fleshed out with some documentation
1275 on `syntax-rules' and `syntax-case' macros, and other parts of the macro
1276 expansion process. See "Macros" in the manual, for details.
1278 ** psyntax is now the default expander
1280 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
1281 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
1284 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
1285 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
1286 code in question was memoized.
1288 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
1289 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
1290 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
1291 `x432' instead of `x'.
1293 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
1294 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
1295 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
1296 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
1298 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
1300 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
1301 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
1302 `macroexpand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
1305 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
1306 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
1307 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
1308 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
1310 ** Tail patterns in syntax-case
1312 Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
1313 syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
1314 are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
1315 match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
1318 (syntax-rules (else)
1319 ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
1322 Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
1323 tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
1324 patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
1326 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
1327 by nonhygienic macros.
1329 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
1330 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
1333 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
1334 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
1335 (define-macro (ref x)
1337 (bind-x 10 (ref x)))
1342 (define-syntax bind-x
1344 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
1345 (define-macro (ref x)
1347 (bind-x 10 (ref x)))
1349 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
1350 if you have defmacros that expand to hygienic macros, it is possible to
1351 run into situations like this. For example, if you have a defmacro that
1352 generates a `while' expression, the `break' bound by the `while' may not
1353 be visible within other parts of your defmacro. The solution is to port
1354 from defmacros to syntax-rules or syntax-case.
1356 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
1358 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
1359 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
1361 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
1362 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
1365 ** Macros may now have docstrings.
1367 `object-documentation' from `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to
1368 retrieve the docstring, once you have a macro value -- but see the above
1369 note about first-class macros. Docstrings are associated with the syntax
1370 transformer procedures.
1372 ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
1374 The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
1375 `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
1376 to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
1378 ** Procedures may now have more than one arity.
1380 This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
1381 arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
1382 `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
1383 Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
1385 ** Deprecate arity access via (procedure-properties proc 'arity)
1387 Instead of accessing a procedure's arity as a property, use the new
1388 `procedure-minimum-arity' function, which gives the most permissive
1389 arity that the the function has, in the same format as the old arity
1392 ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
1394 As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
1395 compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
1396 Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
1397 without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
1399 ** New syntax: define-once
1401 `define-once' is like Lisp's `defvar': it creates a toplevel binding,
1402 but only if one does not exist already.
1404 ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
1406 `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
1407 will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
1408 output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
1411 There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
1412 print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
1413 documentation for more details.
1415 ** Better pretty-printing
1417 Indentation recognizes more special forms, like `syntax-case', and read
1418 macros like `quote' are printed better.
1420 ** Passing a number as the destination of `format' is deprecated
1422 The `format' procedure in `(ice-9 format)' now emits a deprecation
1423 warning if a number is passed as its first argument.
1425 Also, it used to be that you could omit passing a port to `format', in
1426 some cases. This still works, but has been formally deprecated.
1428 ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
1430 Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
1431 have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
1432 or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
1433 else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
1434 APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
1435 addressed by element and not by byte.
1437 So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
1438 numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
1439 endianness, as one would expect.
1441 Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
1442 also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
1443 were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
1444 u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
1447 In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
1448 input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
1450 Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
1451 inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
1453 See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
1455 ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
1457 Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
1458 are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
1459 `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
1461 Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
1462 import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
1464 See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
1466 ** New syntax: include-from-path.
1468 `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
1469 the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
1471 ** New syntax: quasisyntax.
1473 `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
1474 documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
1477 ** `*unspecified*' is identifier syntax
1479 `*unspecified*' is no longer a variable, so it is optimized properly by
1480 the compiler, and is not `set!'-able.
1482 ** Changes and bugfixes in numerics code
1484 *** Added six new sets of fast quotient and remainder operators
1486 Added six new sets of fast quotient and remainder operator pairs with
1487 different semantics than the R5RS operators. They support not only
1488 integers, but all reals, including exact rationals and inexact
1489 floating point numbers.
1491 These procedures accept two real numbers N and D, where the divisor D
1492 must be non-zero. Each set of operators computes an integer quotient
1493 Q and a real remainder R such that N = Q*D + R and |R| < |D|. They
1494 differ only in how N/D is rounded to produce Q.
1496 `euclidean-quotient' returns the integer Q and `euclidean-remainder'
1497 returns the real R such that N = Q*D + R and 0 <= R < |D|. `euclidean/'
1498 returns both Q and R, and is more efficient than computing each
1499 separately. Note that when D > 0, `euclidean-quotient' returns
1500 floor(N/D), and when D < 0 it returns ceiling(N/D).
1502 `centered-quotient', `centered-remainder', and `centered/' are similar
1503 except that the range of remainders is -abs(D/2) <= R < abs(D/2), and
1504 `centered-quotient' rounds N/D to the nearest integer. Note that these
1505 operators are equivalent to the R6RS integer division operators `div',
1506 `mod', `div-and-mod', `div0', `mod0', and `div0-and-mod0'.
1508 `floor-quotient' and `floor-remainder' compute Q and R, respectively,
1509 where Q has been rounded toward negative infinity. `floor/' returns
1510 both Q and R, and is more efficient than computing each separately.
1511 Note that when applied to integers, `floor-remainder' is equivalent to
1512 the R5RS integer-only `modulo' operator. `ceiling-quotient',
1513 `ceiling-remainder', and `ceiling/' are similar except that Q is
1514 rounded toward positive infinity.
1516 For `truncate-quotient', `truncate-remainder', and `truncate/', Q is
1517 rounded toward zero. Note that when applied to integers,
1518 `truncate-quotient' and `truncate-remainder' are equivalent to the
1519 R5RS integer-only operators `quotient' and `remainder'.
1521 For `round-quotient', `round-remainder', and `round/', Q is rounded to
1522 the nearest integer, with ties going to the nearest even integer.
1524 *** Complex number changes
1526 Guile is now able to represent non-real complex numbers whose
1527 imaginary part is an _inexact_ zero (0.0 or -0.0), per R6RS.
1528 Previously, such numbers were immediately changed into inexact reals.
1530 (real? 0.0+0.0i) now returns #f, per R6RS, although (zero? 0.0+0.0i)
1531 still returns #t, per R6RS. (= 0 0.0+0.0i) and (= 0.0 0.0+0.0i) are
1532 #t, but the same comparisons using `eqv?' or `equal?' are #f.
1534 Like other non-real numbers, these complex numbers with inexact zero
1535 imaginary part will raise exceptions is passed to procedures requiring
1536 reals, such as `<', `>', `<=', `>=', `min', `max', `positive?',
1537 `negative?', `inf?', `nan?', `finite?', etc.
1539 **** `make-rectangular' changes
1541 scm_make_rectangular `make-rectangular' now returns a real number only
1542 if the imaginary part is an _exact_ 0. Previously, it would return a
1543 real number if the imaginary part was an inexact zero.
1545 scm_c_make_rectangular now always returns a non-real complex number,
1546 even if the imaginary part is zero. Previously, it would return a
1547 real number if the imaginary part was zero.
1549 **** `make-polar' changes
1551 scm_make_polar `make-polar' now returns a real number only if the
1552 angle or magnitude is an _exact_ 0. If the magnitude is an exact 0,
1553 it now returns an exact 0. Previously, it would return a real
1554 number if the imaginary part was an inexact zero.
1556 scm_c_make_polar now always returns a non-real complex number, even if
1557 the imaginary part is 0.0. Previously, it would return a real number
1558 if the imaginary part was 0.0.
1560 **** `imag-part' changes
1562 scm_imag_part `imag-part' now returns an exact 0 if applied to an
1563 inexact real number. Previously it returned an inexact zero in this
1566 *** `eqv?' and `equal?' now compare numbers equivalently
1568 scm_equal_p `equal?' now behaves equivalently to scm_eqv_p `eqv?' for
1569 numeric values, per R5RS. Previously, equal? worked differently,
1570 e.g. `(equal? 0.0 -0.0)' returned #t but `(eqv? 0.0 -0.0)' returned #f,
1571 and `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' returned #f but `(eqv? +nan.0 +nan.0)'
1574 *** `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' now returns #t
1576 Previously, `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' returned #f, although
1577 `(let ((x +nan.0)) (equal? x x))' and `(eqv? +nan.0 +nan.0)'
1578 both returned #t. R5RS requires that `equal?' behave like
1579 `eqv?' when comparing numbers.
1581 *** Change in handling products `*' involving exact 0
1583 scm_product `*' now handles exact 0 differently. A product containing
1584 an exact 0 now returns an exact 0 if and only if the other arguments
1585 are all exact. An inexact zero is returned if and only if the other
1586 arguments are all finite but not all exact. If an infinite or NaN
1587 value is present, a NaN value is returned. Previously, any product
1588 containing an exact 0 yielded an exact 0, regardless of the other
1591 *** `expt' and `integer-expt' changes when the base is 0
1593 While `(expt 0 0)' is still 1, and `(expt 0 N)' for N > 0 is still
1594 zero, `(expt 0 N)' for N < 0 is now a NaN value, and likewise for
1595 integer-expt. This is more correct, and conforming to R6RS, but seems
1596 to be incompatible with R5RS, which would return 0 for all non-zero
1599 *** `expt' and `integer-expt' are more generic, less strict
1601 When raising to an exact non-negative integer exponent, `expt' and
1602 `integer-expt' are now able to exponentiate any object that can be
1603 multiplied using `*'. They can also raise an object to an exact
1604 negative integer power if its reciprocal can be taken using `/'.
1605 In order to allow this, the type of the first argument is no longer
1606 checked when raising to an exact integer power. If the exponent is 0
1607 or 1, the first parameter is not manipulated at all, and need not
1608 even support multiplication.
1610 *** Infinities are no longer integers, nor rationals
1612 scm_integer_p `integer?' and scm_rational_p `rational?' now return #f
1613 for infinities, per R6RS. Previously they returned #t for real
1614 infinities. The real infinities and NaNs are still considered real by
1615 scm_real `real?' however, per R6RS.
1617 *** NaNs are no longer rationals
1619 scm_rational_p `rational?' now returns #f for NaN values, per R6RS.
1620 Previously it returned #t for real NaN values. They are still
1621 considered real by scm_real `real?' however, per R6RS.
1623 *** `inf?' and `nan?' now throw exceptions for non-reals
1625 The domain of `inf?' and `nan?' is the real numbers. Guile now signals
1626 an error when a non-real number or non-number is passed to these
1627 procedures. (Note that NaNs _are_ considered numbers by scheme, despite
1630 *** `rationalize' bugfixes and changes
1632 Fixed bugs in scm_rationalize `rationalize'. Previously, it returned
1633 exact integers unmodified, although that was incorrect if the epsilon
1634 was at least 1 or inexact, e.g. (rationalize 4 1) should return 3 per
1635 R5RS and R6RS, but previously it returned 4. It also now handles
1636 cases involving infinities and NaNs properly, per R6RS.
1638 *** Trigonometric functions now return exact numbers in some cases
1640 scm_sin `sin', scm_cos `cos', scm_tan `tan', scm_asin `asin', scm_acos
1641 `acos', scm_atan `atan', scm_sinh `sinh', scm_cosh `cosh', scm_tanh
1642 `tanh', scm_sys_asinh `asinh', scm_sys_acosh `acosh', and
1643 scm_sys_atanh `atanh' now return exact results in some cases.
1645 *** New procedure: `finite?'
1647 Add scm_finite_p `finite?' from R6RS to guile core, which returns #t
1648 if and only if its argument is neither infinite nor a NaN. Note that
1649 this is not the same as (not (inf? x)) or (not (infinite? x)), since
1650 NaNs are neither finite nor infinite.
1652 *** Improved exactness handling for complex number parsing
1654 When parsing non-real complex numbers, exactness specifiers are now
1655 applied to each component, as is done in PLT Scheme. For complex
1656 numbers written in rectangular form, exactness specifiers are applied
1657 to the real and imaginary parts before calling scm_make_rectangular.
1658 For complex numbers written in polar form, exactness specifiers are
1659 applied to the magnitude and angle before calling scm_make_polar.
1661 Previously, exactness specifiers were applied to the number as a whole
1662 _after_ calling scm_make_rectangular or scm_make_polar.
1664 For example, (string->number "#i5.0+0i") now does the equivalent of:
1666 (make-rectangular (exact->inexact 5.0) (exact->inexact 0))
1668 which yields 5.0+0.0i. Previously it did the equivalent of:
1670 (exact->inexact (make-rectangular 5.0 0))
1674 ** Unicode characters
1676 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
1677 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
1678 probably be introduced at some point.
1682 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
1683 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
1684 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
1686 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
1687 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
1688 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
1689 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
1693 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
1695 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
1697 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
1698 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
1699 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
1700 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
1701 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
1704 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
1705 code. This use is now discouraged. Binary input and output is
1706 currently supported by opening ports in the ISO-8859-1 locale.
1708 ** Source files default to UTF-8.
1710 If source files do not specify their encoding via a `coding:' block,
1711 the default encoding is UTF-8, instead of being taken from the current
1714 ** Interactive Guile installs the current locale.
1716 Instead of leaving the user in the "C" locale, running the Guile REPL
1717 installs the current locale. [FIXME xref?]
1719 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
1721 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
1722 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
1723 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
1726 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
1727 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
1728 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
1730 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
1732 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
1734 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
1735 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
1736 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
1737 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
1739 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
1741 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
1742 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
1743 Unicode code points.
1745 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
1747 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
1748 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
1749 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
1752 ** EBCDIC support is removed
1754 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
1755 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
1756 and was unmaintained.
1758 ** Compile-time warnings
1760 Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
1761 -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
1762 `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
1763 invocation. Warnings are also enabled by default for expressions entered
1766 Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
1767 procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
1768 `#:warnings' as above.
1770 Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to
1771 warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables, and `-Wformat',
1772 to check for various errors related to the `format' procedure.
1774 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
1776 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
1779 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
1781 This slightly improves program startup times.
1783 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
1785 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
1787 ** New threads are in `(guile-user)' by default, not `(guile)'
1789 It used to be that a new thread entering Guile would do so in the
1790 `(guile)' module, unless this was the first time Guile was initialized,
1791 in which case it was `(guile-user)'. This has been fixed to have all
1792 new threads unknown to Guile default to `(guile-user)'.
1794 ** New helpers: `print-exception', `set-exception-printer!'
1796 These functions implement an extensible exception printer. Guile
1797 registers printers for all of the exceptions it throws. Users may add
1798 their own printers. There is also `scm_print_exception', for use by C
1799 programs. Pleasantly, this allows SRFI-35 and R6RS exceptions to be
1800 printed appropriately.
1802 ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
1804 As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
1805 special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
1806 associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
1807 underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
1809 This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
1810 dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
1811 implement method combinations.
1813 ** Applicable struct support
1815 One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
1816 To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
1817 That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
1818 that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
1819 `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
1820 `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
1821 `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
1822 the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
1826 GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
1827 but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
1828 never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
1829 were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
1830 replaced by applicable structs, mentioned above.
1832 ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
1834 A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
1835 call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
1836 instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
1837 vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
1839 ** eqv? not a generic
1841 One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
1842 more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
1843 should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
1844 sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
1846 ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
1848 Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
1849 there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
1850 functions are deprecated.
1852 ** `getopt-long' parsing errors throw to `quit', not `misc-error'
1854 This change should inhibit backtraces on argument parsing errors.
1855 `getopt-long' has been modified to print out the error that it throws
1858 ** New primitive: `tmpfile'.
1860 See "File System" in the manual.
1862 ** Random generator state may be serialized to a datum
1864 `random-state->datum' will serialize a random state to a datum, which
1865 may be written out, read back in later, and revivified using
1866 `datum->random-state'. See "Random" in the manual, for more details.
1868 ** Fix random number generator on 64-bit platforms
1870 There was a nasty bug on 64-bit platforms in which asking for a random
1871 integer with a range between 2**32 and 2**64 caused a segfault. After
1872 many embarrassing iterations, this was fixed.
1874 ** Fast bit operations.
1876 The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
1877 have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
1878 it's for number crunching too.
1880 ** Faster SRFI-9 record access
1882 SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
1883 and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
1884 inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
1885 (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
1887 ** R6RS block comment support
1889 Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
1890 marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
1892 ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
1894 To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
1895 test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
1897 (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
1898 ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
1899 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1901 ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
1902 ;; separate compilation phase.
1903 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1905 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
1907 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
1909 ** New fluid: `%file-port-name-canonicalization'
1911 This fluid parameterizes the file names that are associated with file
1912 ports. If %file-port-name-canonicalization is 'absolute, then file names
1913 are canonicalized to be absolute paths. If it is 'relative, then the
1914 name is canonicalized, but any prefix corresponding to a member of
1915 `%load-path' is stripped off. Otherwise the names are passed through
1918 In addition, the `compile-file' and `compile-and-load' procedures bind
1919 %file-port-name-canonicalization to their `#:canonicalization' keyword
1920 argument, which defaults to 'relative. In this way, one might compile
1921 "../module/ice-9/boot-9.scm", but the path that gets residualized into
1922 the .go is "ice-9/boot-9.scm".
1924 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
1926 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
1928 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
1930 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
1932 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
1934 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
1936 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
1937 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
1938 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
1940 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
1942 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
1943 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
1945 ** New readline history functions
1947 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
1948 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
1949 History library functions.
1951 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
1952 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
1954 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
1957 ** Deprecate the old `scm-style-repl'
1959 The following bindings from boot-9 are now found in `(ice-9
1960 scm-style-repl)': `scm-style-repl', `error-catching-loop',
1961 `error-catching-repl', `bad-throw', `scm-repl-silent'
1962 `assert-repl-silence', `repl-print-unspecified',
1963 `assert-repl-print-unspecified', `scm-repl-verbose',
1964 `assert-repl-verbosity', `scm-repl-prompt', `set-repl-prompt!', `repl',
1965 `default-pre-unwind-handler', `handle-system-error',
1967 The following bindings have been deprecated, with no replacement:
1968 `pre-unwind-handler-dispatch'.
1970 The following bindings have been totally removed:
1971 `before-signal-stack'.
1973 Deprecated forwarding shims have been installed so that users that
1974 expect these bindings in the main namespace will still work, but receive
1975 a deprecation warning.
1977 ** `set-batch-mode?!' replaced by `ensure-batch-mode!'
1979 "Batch mode" is a flag used to tell a program that it is not running
1980 interactively. One usually turns it on after a fork. It may not be
1981 turned off. `ensure-batch-mode!' deprecates the old `set-batch-mode?!',
1982 because it is a better interface, as it can only turn on batch mode, not
1985 ** Deprecate `save-stack', `the-last-stack'
1987 It used to be that the way to debug programs in Guile was to capture the
1988 stack at the time of error, drop back to the REPL, then debug that
1989 stack. But this approach didn't compose, was tricky to get right in the
1990 presence of threads, and was not very powerful.
1992 So `save-stack', `stack-saved?', and `the-last-stack' have been moved to
1993 `(ice-9 save-stack)', with deprecated bindings left in the root module.
1995 ** `top-repl' has its own module
1997 The `top-repl' binding, called with Guile is run interactively, is now
1998 is its own module, `(ice-9 top-repl)'. A deprecated forwarding shim was
1999 left in the default environment.
2001 ** `display-error' takes a frame
2003 The `display-error' / `scm_display_error' helper now takes a frame as an
2004 argument instead of a stack. Stacks are still supported in deprecated
2005 builds. Additionally, `display-error' will again source location
2006 information for the error.
2008 ** No more `(ice-9 debug)'
2010 This module had some debugging helpers that are no longer applicable to
2011 the current debugging model. Importing this module will produce a
2012 deprecation warning. Users should contact bug-guile for support.
2014 ** Remove obsolete debug-options
2016 Removed `breakpoints', `trace', `procnames', `indent', `frames',
2017 `maxdepth', and `debug' debug-options.
2019 ** `backtrace' debug option on by default
2021 Given that Guile 2.0 can always give you a backtrace, backtraces are now
2024 ** `turn-on-debugging' deprecated
2026 ** Remove obsolete print-options
2028 The `source' and `closure-hook' print options are obsolete, and have
2031 ** Remove obsolete read-options
2033 The "elisp-strings" and "elisp-vectors" read options were unused and
2034 obsolete, so they have been removed.
2036 ** Remove eval-options and trap-options
2038 Eval-options and trap-options are obsolete with the new VM and
2041 ** Remove (ice-9 debugger) and (ice-9 debugging)
2043 See "Traps" and "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for information
2044 on their replacements.
2046 ** Remove the GDS Emacs integration
2048 See "Using Guile in Emacs" in the manual, for info on how we think you
2049 should use Guile with Emacs.
2051 ** Deprecated: `lazy-catch'
2053 `lazy-catch' was a form that captured the stack at the point of a
2054 `throw', but the dynamic state at the point of the `catch'. It was a bit
2055 crazy. Please change to use `catch', possibly with a throw-handler, or
2056 `with-throw-handler'.
2058 ** Deprecated: primitive properties
2060 The `primitive-make-property', `primitive-property-set!',
2061 `primitive-property-ref', and `primitive-property-del!' procedures were
2062 crufty and only used to implement object properties, which has a new,
2063 threadsafe implementation. Use object properties or weak hash tables
2066 ** Deprecated `@bind' syntax
2068 `@bind' was part of an older implementation of the Emacs Lisp language,
2069 and is no longer used.
2071 ** Miscellaneous other deprecations
2073 `cuserid' has been deprecated, as it only returns 8 bytes of a user's
2074 login. Use `(passwd:name (getpwuid (geteuid)))' instead.
2076 Additionally, the procedures `apply-to-args', `has-suffix?', `scheme-file-suffix'
2077 `get-option', `for-next-option', `display-usage-report',
2078 `transform-usage-lambda', `collect', and `set-batch-mode?!' have all
2081 ** Add support for unbound fluids
2083 See `make-unbound-fluid', `fluid-unset!', and `fluid-bound?' in the
2086 ** Add `variable-unset!'
2088 See "Variables" in the manual, for more details.
2090 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
2092 * Changes to the C interface
2094 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
2096 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
2097 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
2098 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
2100 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
2101 code easier and less error-prone.
2103 ** New procedures: `scm_to_stringn', `scm_from_stringn'
2104 ** New procedures: scm_{to,from}_{utf8,latin1}_symbol{n,}
2105 ** New procedures: scm_{to,from}_{utf8,utf32,latin1}_string{n,}
2107 These new procedures convert to and from string representations in
2108 particular encodings.
2110 Users should continue to use locale encoding for user input, user
2111 output, or interacting with the C library.
2113 Use the Latin-1 functions for ASCII, and for literals in source code.
2115 Use UTF-8 functions for interaction with modern libraries which deal in
2116 UTF-8, and UTF-32 for interaction with utf32-using libraries.
2118 Otherwise, use scm_to_stringn or scm_from_stringn with a specific
2121 ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.
2123 `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
2124 `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
2125 available to C. Have fun!
2127 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
2129 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
2131 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
2134 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
2135 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
2137 ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
2139 From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
2140 odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
2141 SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
2144 ** Remove old evaluator closures
2146 There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
2147 structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
2148 procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
2149 newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
2152 ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
2154 It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
2155 allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
2156 Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
2157 defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
2158 solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
2159 both with the old 1.8 and and with the current 1.9 branch.
2161 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
2162 primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
2163 rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
2164 procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
2165 arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
2166 special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
2168 This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
2169 them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
2170 debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
2171 example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
2172 mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
2174 However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
2175 `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
2176 they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
2177 `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
2178 `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
2179 `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
2181 Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
2182 `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
2183 `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
2184 and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
2187 Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
2188 scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
2191 ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
2193 Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
2194 `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
2195 `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
2196 `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
2197 `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
2199 ** Remove unused snarf macros
2201 `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
2202 are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
2204 ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
2206 `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
2207 `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
2209 ** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
2211 Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
2212 they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
2214 ** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
2216 If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
2217 that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
2218 the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
2219 in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
2220 correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
2223 ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
2225 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
2226 objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
2227 trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
2228 trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
2231 The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
2232 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
2233 `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
2234 deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
2236 ** Removed support shlibs for SRFIs 1, 4, 13, 14, and 60
2238 Though these SRFI support libraries did expose API, they encoded a
2239 strange version string into their library names. That version was never
2240 programmatically exported, so there was no way people could use the
2243 This was a fortunate oversight, as it allows us to remove the need for
2244 extra, needless shared libraries --- the C support code for SRFIs 4, 13,
2245 and 14 was already in core --- and allow us to incrementally return the
2246 SRFI implementation to Scheme.
2248 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
2250 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
2252 ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
2254 It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
2257 ** Inline vector allocation
2259 Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
2260 data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
2261 true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
2262 available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
2265 ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
2267 `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
2268 constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
2272 In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is
2273 no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has
2274 a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API
2275 considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is
2276 in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly.
2278 ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
2280 There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
2281 minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
2282 obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
2283 `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
2284 from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
2285 were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
2289 Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
2290 shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
2291 part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
2292 better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
2294 ** Deprecate trampolines
2296 There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
2297 so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
2298 procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
2299 optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
2300 Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
2302 ** Deprecated `scm_badargsp'
2304 This function is unused in Guile, but was part of its API.
2306 ** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
2308 The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
2309 efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
2310 Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
2311 like scm_is_null_or_nil.
2313 ** Better integration of Lisp `nil'.
2315 `scm_is_boolean', `scm_is_false', and `scm_is_null' all return true now
2316 for Lisp's `nil'. This shouldn't affect any Scheme code at this point,
2317 but when we start to integrate more with Emacs, it is possible that we
2318 break code that assumes that, for example, `(not x)' implies that `x' is
2319 `eq?' to `#f'. This is not a common assumption. Refactoring affected
2320 code to rely on properties instead of identities will improve code
2321 correctness. See "Nil" in the manual, for more details.
2323 ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
2325 Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
2326 much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
2329 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
2330 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
2332 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
2334 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
2335 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
2337 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
2339 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
2340 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
2341 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
2342 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
2344 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
2346 * Changes to the distribution
2348 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
2350 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
2351 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
2356 Guile's build is visually quieter, due to the use of Automake 1.11's
2357 AM_SILENT_RULES. Build as `make V=1' to see all of the output.
2359 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
2361 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
2362 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
2364 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
2366 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
2367 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
2368 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
2371 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
2373 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
2374 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
2376 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
2378 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
2379 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
2381 ** Parallel installability fixes
2383 Guile now installs its header files to a effective-version-specific
2384 directory, and includes the effective version (e.g. 2.0) in the library
2385 name (e.g. libguile-2.0.so).
2387 This change should be transparent to users, who should detect Guile via
2388 the guile.m4 macro, or the guile-2.0.pc pkg-config file. It will allow
2389 parallel installs for multiple versions of Guile development
2392 ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
2394 Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
2395 (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
2396 be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
2397 directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensiondir
2398 guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
2400 ** User Scheme code may be placed in a version-specific path
2402 Before, there was only one way to install user Scheme code to a
2403 version-specific Guile directory: install to Guile's own path,
2404 e.g. /usr/share/guile/2.0. The site directory,
2405 e.g. /usr/share/guile/site, was unversioned. This has been changed to
2406 add a version-specific site directory, e.g. /usr/share/guile/site/2.0,
2407 searched before the global site directory.
2409 ** New dependency: libgc
2411 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
2413 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
2415 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
2416 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
2418 ** New dependency: libffi
2420 See http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information.
2424 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
2428 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
2429 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
2430 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
2433 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
2435 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2437 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
2441 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
2442 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
2443 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
2444 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
2445 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
2446 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
2447 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
2448 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
2449 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
2450 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
2451 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
2453 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
2455 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
2456 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
2457 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
2460 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
2463 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
2465 * New features (see the manual for details)
2467 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
2469 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
2471 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
2472 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
2473 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
2475 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
2477 * Changes to the distribution
2479 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
2481 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
2482 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
2484 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
2486 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
2487 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
2492 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
2493 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
2494 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
2495 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
2496 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
2497 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
2498 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
2499 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
2500 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
2501 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
2502 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
2503 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
2504 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
2505 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
2507 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
2508 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
2509 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
2510 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
2511 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
2514 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
2516 * Infrastructure changes
2518 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
2520 The new repository can be accessed using
2521 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
2522 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
2524 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
2526 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
2528 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2532 * New features (see the manual for details)
2534 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
2535 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
2536 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
2538 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
2539 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
2540 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
2541 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
2543 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
2545 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
2546 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
2547 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
2551 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
2552 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
2554 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
2555 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
2557 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
2558 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
2560 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
2561 lead to a stack overflow.
2563 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
2564 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
2565 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
2566 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
2567 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
2568 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
2569 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
2570 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
2571 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
2572 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
2573 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
2574 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
2575 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
2576 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
2577 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
2578 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
2581 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
2585 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
2586 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
2587 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
2588 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
2589 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
2590 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
2591 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
2592 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
2593 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
2594 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
2595 system and library calls.
2596 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
2597 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
2598 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
2599 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
2600 uniform vectors on AIX.
2601 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
2602 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
2603 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
2604 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
2605 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
2607 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2611 * Documentation fixes and improvements
2613 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
2615 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
2616 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
2618 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
2620 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
2622 * Changes to the distribution
2624 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
2626 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
2627 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
2628 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
2630 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
2632 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
2635 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
2637 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2644 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
2645 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
2646 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
2647 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
2648 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
2649 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
2650 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
2652 * Implementation improvements
2654 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
2655 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
2658 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
2660 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
2662 ** set-program-arguments
2665 * Incompatible changes
2667 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
2669 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
2670 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
2671 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
2672 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
2677 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
2678 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
2679 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
2680 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
2681 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
2682 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
2684 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
2685 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
2686 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
2687 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
2688 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
2689 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
2690 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
2691 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
2692 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
2693 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
2694 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
2695 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
2696 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
2697 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
2698 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
2699 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
2702 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
2704 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
2706 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
2708 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
2709 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
2710 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
2711 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
2712 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
2713 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
2721 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
2723 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
2725 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
2727 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
2729 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
2731 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
2733 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
2734 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
2735 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
2737 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
2739 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
2741 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
2742 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
2744 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
2746 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
2747 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
2749 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
2751 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
2753 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
2755 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
2757 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
2759 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
2761 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
2763 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
2765 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
2767 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
2768 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
2769 file was on a different device.
2772 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
2774 * Changes to the distribution
2776 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
2778 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
2780 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
2782 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
2784 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
2786 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
2789 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
2791 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
2792 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
2793 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
2794 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
2795 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
2796 items like the versioned share directory name
2797 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
2799 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
2800 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
2801 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
2802 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
2803 with each micro release during a stable series.
2805 ** Thread implementation has changed.
2807 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
2808 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
2809 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
2810 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
2811 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
2814 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
2815 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
2816 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
2817 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
2820 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
2821 in which case "null" threads are used.
2823 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
2824 "Blocking", and others.
2826 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
2828 This is a milder form of deprecation.
2830 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
2831 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
2832 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
2833 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
2834 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
2836 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
2837 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
2839 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
2841 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
2842 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
2844 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
2847 This SRFI is always available.
2849 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
2851 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
2852 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
2853 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
2854 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
2857 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
2859 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
2860 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
2861 parameters without currying.
2863 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
2865 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
2866 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
2868 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
2869 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
2872 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
2873 with a renaming import, for example.
2875 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
2877 The official version is good enough now.
2879 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
2881 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
2882 provided. Use 'make html'.
2884 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
2886 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
2887 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
2888 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
2889 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
2891 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
2893 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
2896 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2898 ** New command line option `-L'.
2900 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
2902 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
2904 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
2905 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
2907 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
2909 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
2910 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
2912 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
2914 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
2915 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
2918 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
2921 (define-module (demo)
2925 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
2928 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2930 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
2932 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
2933 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
2934 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
2936 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
2938 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
2939 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
2941 ** New function hashx-remove!
2943 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
2945 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
2946 barriers and dynamic states.
2948 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
2949 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
2950 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
2953 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
2954 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
2955 Barriers" in the manual.
2957 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
2958 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
2960 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
2962 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
2963 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
2964 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
2965 variable %load-path.
2967 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
2969 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
2970 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
2972 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
2973 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
2974 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
2976 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
2977 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
2979 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
2980 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
2981 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
2983 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
2984 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
2985 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
2988 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
2989 substrings and read-only strings.
2991 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
2992 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
2995 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
2997 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
3006 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
3007 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
3008 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
3010 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
3011 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
3012 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
3013 on an ANSI terminal:
3015 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
3016 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
3019 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
3021 See the manual for details.
3023 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
3025 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
3028 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
3030 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
3031 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
3032 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
3033 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
3035 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
3036 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
3037 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
3040 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
3042 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
3043 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
3054 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
3058 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
3063 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
3067 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
3071 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
3074 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
3075 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
3076 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
3077 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
3079 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
3080 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
3083 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
3086 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
3090 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
3092 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
3093 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
3094 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
3097 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
3100 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
3102 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
3105 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
3106 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
3109 (define-module (foo)
3114 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
3115 has been detected is to
3117 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
3118 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
3119 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
3122 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
3125 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
3127 to your .guile init file.
3129 ** New define-module option: :replace
3131 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
3134 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
3135 for the core binding `format'.
3137 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
3139 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
3140 a prefix to all imported bindings.
3142 (define-module (foo)
3143 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
3145 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
3148 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
3150 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
3151 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
3152 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
3154 ** New function: effective-version
3156 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
3157 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
3158 to the distribution" above.
3160 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
3162 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
3163 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
3165 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
3167 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
3168 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
3170 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
3172 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
3173 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
3176 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
3178 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
3180 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
3182 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
3183 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
3184 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
3187 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
3188 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
3189 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
3190 'system-async-mark'.
3192 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
3193 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
3195 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
3196 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
3197 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
3200 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
3202 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
3203 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
3206 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
3207 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
3209 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
3210 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
3211 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
3212 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
3213 level for the current thread.
3215 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
3217 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
3219 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
3220 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
3223 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
3225 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
3227 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
3230 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
3232 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
3235 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
3236 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
3237 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
3239 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
3240 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
3241 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
3242 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
3253 ERROR: Numerical overflow
3255 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
3258 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
3260 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
3261 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
3262 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
3273 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
3275 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
3276 them is also done exactly, of course:
3281 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
3282 for exact arguments.
3284 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
3285 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
3287 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
3289 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
3290 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
3291 equal to a floating point number. For example:
3293 (inexact->exact 1.234)
3294 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
3296 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
3298 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
3301 ** New function 'rationalize'.
3303 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
3304 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
3306 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
3309 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
3310 result when both its arguments are exact.
3312 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
3314 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
3315 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
3316 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
3318 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
3320 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
3321 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
3322 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
3324 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
3327 ** pretty-print has more options.
3329 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
3330 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
3331 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
3333 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
3335 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
3336 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
3337 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
3339 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
3341 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
3342 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
3344 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
3346 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
3347 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
3350 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
3352 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
3353 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
3354 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
3355 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
3356 without the soft port blocking.
3358 ** Deprecated: undefine
3360 There is no replacement for undefine.
3362 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
3363 have been discouraged.
3365 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
3366 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
3367 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
3370 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
3372 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
3374 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
3375 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
3376 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
3377 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
3380 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
3381 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
3382 be removed in the next major Guile release.
3384 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
3386 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
3387 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
3388 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
3389 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
3390 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
3391 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
3393 * Changes to the C interface
3395 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
3396 take a 'delete' function argument.
3398 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
3399 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
3401 This is an incompatible change.
3403 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
3405 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
3406 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
3407 --disable-deprecated.
3409 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
3411 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
3412 Scheme values has been added.
3414 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
3415 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
3418 - int scm_is_* (...)
3420 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
3421 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
3423 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
3425 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
3426 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
3429 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
3431 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
3432 scm_from_int for ints.
3434 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
3435 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
3436 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
3438 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
3440 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
3441 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
3442 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
3445 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
3447 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
3449 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
3451 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
3452 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
3453 following alternatives.
3455 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
3456 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
3457 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
3458 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
3460 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
3461 do the validating for you.
3463 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
3464 have been discouraged.
3466 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
3467 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
3470 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
3472 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
3473 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
3476 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
3478 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
3481 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
3484 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
3486 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
3487 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
3489 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
3490 scm_truncate_number should have.
3492 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
3493 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
3495 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
3498 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
3499 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
3500 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
3502 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
3503 easier to use from C.
3505 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
3506 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
3508 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
3509 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
3510 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
3513 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
3514 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
3515 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
3516 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
3519 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
3520 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
3521 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
3522 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
3523 and is thus quite efficient.
3525 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
3527 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
3528 about the character encoding.
3530 Replace according to the following table:
3532 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
3533 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
3534 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
3535 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
3536 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
3537 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
3538 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
3539 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
3540 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
3542 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
3543 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
3545 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
3547 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
3548 now also available to C code.
3550 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
3552 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
3553 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
3554 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
3556 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
3559 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
3561 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
3562 unceremoniously removed.
3564 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
3565 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
3566 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
3568 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
3569 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
3570 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
3571 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
3572 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
3573 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
3576 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
3578 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
3579 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
3580 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
3581 manual for more details.
3583 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
3584 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
3586 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
3587 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
3588 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
3590 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
3592 Migrate according to the following table:
3594 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
3595 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
3596 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
3597 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
3598 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
3599 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
3600 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
3602 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
3603 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
3604 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
3605 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
3606 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
3607 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
3608 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
3610 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
3612 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
3613 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
3615 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
3616 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
3617 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
3618 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
3620 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
3622 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
3623 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
3624 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
3626 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
3627 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
3629 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
3630 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
3631 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
3632 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
3634 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
3636 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
3637 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
3638 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
3639 prevent a potential memory leak:
3646 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
3648 mem = scm_malloc (100);
3649 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
3651 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
3652 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
3659 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
3660 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
3664 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
3666 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
3668 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
3669 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
3670 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
3672 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
3673 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
3675 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
3677 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
3679 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
3680 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
3681 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
3683 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
3684 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
3686 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
3687 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
3688 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
3689 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
3692 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
3694 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
3695 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
3696 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
3698 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
3700 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
3701 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
3703 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
3705 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
3706 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
3708 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
3710 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
3711 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
3712 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
3714 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
3716 You should not have used them.
3718 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
3720 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
3721 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
3723 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
3725 This macro is not intended for public use.
3727 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
3729 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
3731 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
3733 Use scm_is_real instead.
3735 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
3737 Use scm_is_complex instead.
3739 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
3741 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
3742 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
3744 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
3745 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
3747 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
3748 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
3750 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
3752 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
3755 ** New function: scm_effective_version
3757 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
3758 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
3759 to the distribution" above.
3761 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
3763 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
3764 arguments are now passed directly:
3766 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
3768 This is an incompatible change.
3770 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
3772 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
3773 function in the init section.
3775 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
3777 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
3779 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
3780 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
3781 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
3782 stays roughly constant.
3784 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
3785 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
3786 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
3787 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
3788 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
3791 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
3792 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
3793 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
3794 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
3796 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
3797 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
3798 objects for every type.
3801 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
3803 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
3805 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
3807 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
3808 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
3809 initializes a new cell (see below).
3811 ** New functions for memory management
3813 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
3814 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
3815 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
3816 cause aborts in long running programs.
3818 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
3819 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
3821 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
3822 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
3823 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
3824 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
3825 details and for upgrading instructions.
3827 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
3828 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
3829 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
3831 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
3833 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
3834 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
3835 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
3836 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
3837 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
3839 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
3840 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
3841 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
3843 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
3844 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
3846 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
3848 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
3849 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
3850 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
3851 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
3852 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
3854 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
3856 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
3859 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
3861 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
3863 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
3865 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
3866 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
3868 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
3870 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
3871 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
3873 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
3874 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
3876 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
3878 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
3880 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
3881 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
3882 blocking it is not well defined.
3884 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
3886 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
3887 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
3888 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
3889 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
3890 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
3891 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
3892 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
3893 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
3894 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
3895 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
3896 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3897 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
3898 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
3899 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
3900 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
3901 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
3902 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
3903 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3904 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
3905 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
3906 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
3907 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
3908 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
3909 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
3910 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
3911 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
3912 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
3913 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
3914 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
3915 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
3916 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
3918 * Changes to bundled modules
3922 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
3923 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
3924 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
3925 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
3926 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
3929 Changes since Guile 1.4:
3931 * Changes to the distribution
3933 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
3935 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
3937 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
3938 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
3939 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
3940 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
3941 indicate major changes in Guile.
3943 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
3944 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
3945 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
3946 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
3948 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
3949 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
3950 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
3951 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
3952 micro version number.
3954 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
3956 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
3958 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
3959 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
3961 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
3963 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
3964 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
3965 See INSTALL and README for more information.
3967 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
3969 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
3970 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
3971 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
3974 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
3976 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
3979 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
3981 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
3982 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
3984 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
3986 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
3987 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
3990 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
3992 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
3995 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
3998 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
4000 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
4002 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
4003 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
4004 open-output-string, get-output-string.
4006 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
4008 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
4010 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
4013 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
4015 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
4017 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
4019 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
4020 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
4021 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
4023 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
4025 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
4027 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
4028 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
4037 See README there for more info.
4039 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
4040 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
4043 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
4045 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
4047 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
4049 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
4050 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
4051 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
4053 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
4055 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
4056 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
4057 to be named `and-let*', of course.
4059 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
4060 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
4062 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
4065 (oop goops describe)
4067 (oop goops active-slot)
4068 (oop goops composite-slot)
4070 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
4071 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
4072 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
4074 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
4076 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
4077 in the default environment:
4079 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
4080 %read-line write-line
4082 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
4083 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
4085 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
4087 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
4090 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
4091 can be used for similar functionality.
4093 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
4095 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
4096 it defines two procedures:
4098 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
4100 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
4101 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
4102 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
4105 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
4107 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
4108 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
4109 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
4110 write large strings.
4112 ** New module (ice-9 match)
4114 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
4115 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
4117 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
4119 for complete documentation.
4121 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
4123 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
4124 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
4125 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
4126 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
4128 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
4129 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
4133 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
4134 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
4135 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
4138 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
4141 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
4142 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
4144 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
4145 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
4148 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
4151 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
4153 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
4155 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4157 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
4159 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
4160 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
4161 Scheme programs easier.
4163 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
4164 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
4165 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
4166 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
4167 `cond-expand' when using this option.
4170 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
4171 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
4173 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
4176 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
4178 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
4179 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
4180 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
4183 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4185 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
4187 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
4188 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
4189 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
4190 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
4191 was also ASCII, for example.
4193 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
4195 tag - no replacement.
4196 fseek - replaced by seek.
4197 list* - replaced by cons*.
4199 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
4203 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
4204 (define m (make-safe-module))
4205 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
4206 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
4207 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
4209 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
4211 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
4212 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
4213 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
4215 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
4217 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
4218 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
4219 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
4220 from the issues related to the module system.
4222 *** New function: load-extension
4224 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
4226 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
4228 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
4229 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
4230 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
4232 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
4234 This function registers a initialization function for use by
4235 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
4236 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
4237 support dynamic linking).
4239 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
4241 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
4242 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
4243 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
4244 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
4247 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
4248 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
4249 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
4250 library and initialize it explicitly.
4252 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
4253 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
4255 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
4257 (define-module (foo bar))
4259 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
4261 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
4263 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
4264 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
4266 (scheme-report-environment 5)
4267 (null-environment 5)
4268 (interaction-environment)
4274 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
4276 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
4277 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
4278 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
4279 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
4281 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
4282 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
4283 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
4284 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
4285 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
4286 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
4287 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
4288 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
4289 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
4290 one eval to the next.
4292 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
4293 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
4294 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
4295 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
4296 subforms are at the top-level as well.
4298 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
4299 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
4300 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
4301 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
4302 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
4303 used in a lexical environment.
4305 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
4306 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
4307 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
4308 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
4309 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
4310 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
4312 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
4314 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
4315 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
4316 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
4317 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
4318 new facilities: selection and renaming.
4320 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
4321 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
4322 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
4324 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
4325 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
4327 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
4328 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
4329 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
4331 (remove-if . zonk-y)
4332 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
4334 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
4335 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
4336 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
4337 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
4340 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
4341 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
4342 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
4343 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
4345 (remove-if . zonk-y)
4346 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
4347 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
4349 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
4350 ;; and all four by upcasing.
4351 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
4352 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
4353 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
4355 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
4357 (remove-if . zonk-y)
4358 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
4359 :renamer upcase-symbol))
4361 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
4362 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
4363 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
4365 See manual for more info.
4367 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
4369 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
4370 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
4371 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
4373 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
4375 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
4376 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
4377 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
4379 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
4380 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
4381 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
4382 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
4384 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
4386 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
4387 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
4389 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
4390 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
4391 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
4392 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
4393 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
4396 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
4397 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
4398 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
4399 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
4400 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
4401 successful and #f if it wasn't.
4403 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
4404 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
4405 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
4406 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
4407 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
4409 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
4410 objects are usually permanent.
4412 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
4413 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
4415 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
4417 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
4418 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
4421 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
4425 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
4430 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
4432 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
4433 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
4434 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
4435 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
4437 ** New function `make-object-property'
4439 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
4440 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
4444 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
4445 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
4449 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
4450 source properties eventually.
4452 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
4454 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
4455 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
4456 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
4458 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
4459 will be removed in the next release.
4461 ** New define-module option: pure
4463 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
4468 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
4471 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
4473 Export names NAME1 ...
4475 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
4476 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
4480 (define-module (foo)
4482 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
4485 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
4490 ** New function: object->string OBJ
4492 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
4494 ** New function: port? X
4496 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
4497 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
4499 ** New function: file-port?
4501 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
4503 ** New function: port-for-each proc
4505 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
4506 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
4507 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
4508 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
4509 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
4511 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
4513 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
4514 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
4515 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
4516 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
4517 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
4520 ** New function: close-fdes fd
4522 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
4523 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
4524 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
4525 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
4528 ** New function: crypt password salt
4530 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
4533 ** New function: chroot path
4535 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
4537 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
4539 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
4542 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
4544 Get or set the priority of the running process.
4546 ** New function: getpass prompt
4548 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
4551 ** New function: flock file operation
4553 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
4555 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
4557 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
4560 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
4562 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
4563 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
4564 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
4565 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
4566 of the temporary file.
4568 ** New function: open-input-string string
4570 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
4571 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
4572 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
4574 ** New function: open-output-string
4576 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
4577 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
4579 ** New function: get-output-string
4581 Return the contents of an output string port.
4583 ** New function: identity
4585 Return the argument.
4587 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
4588 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
4590 ** New function: inet-pton family address
4592 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
4593 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
4594 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
4597 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
4598 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
4600 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
4602 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
4603 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
4604 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
4607 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
4608 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
4609 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
4613 Use `identity' instead.
4619 ** Deprecated: return-it
4623 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
4625 Use `string-length' instead.
4627 ** Deprecated: flags
4629 Use `logior' instead.
4631 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
4633 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
4634 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
4635 port-for-each is more flexible.
4637 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
4638 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
4639 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
4641 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
4643 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
4645 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
4647 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
4649 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
4651 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
4652 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
4654 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
4655 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
4657 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
4658 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
4660 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
4662 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
4663 Removed function: builtin-bindings
4665 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
4666 Use module system operations for all variables.
4668 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
4670 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
4673 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
4675 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
4676 The following bugs have been fixed:
4678 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
4679 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
4682 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
4683 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
4684 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
4686 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
4687 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
4689 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
4690 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
4693 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
4694 The expansion used to be like so:
4696 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
4698 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
4700 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
4702 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
4703 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
4705 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
4707 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
4708 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
4709 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
4713 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
4714 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
4716 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
4721 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
4722 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
4724 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
4725 and `d', other keywords allowed.
4726 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
4728 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
4731 * Changes to the C interface
4733 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
4735 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
4736 with "_t". What a concept.
4738 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
4740 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
4742 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
4746 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
4747 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
4749 *** C Functions removed
4751 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
4752 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
4753 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
4754 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
4755 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
4756 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
4757 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
4759 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
4761 Use scm_mem2string instead.
4763 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
4765 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
4767 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
4768 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
4770 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
4772 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
4775 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
4777 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
4779 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
4781 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
4782 Evaluation" in the manual.
4784 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
4786 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
4787 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
4789 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
4791 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
4792 Constructors" in the manual.
4794 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
4796 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
4797 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
4799 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
4801 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
4803 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
4804 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
4805 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
4807 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4809 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
4811 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
4812 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
4813 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
4816 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4818 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
4820 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
4821 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
4823 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
4825 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
4826 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
4827 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
4828 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
4830 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
4831 scm_primitive_property_ref
4832 scm_primitive_property_set_x
4833 scm_primitive_property_del_x
4835 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
4836 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
4838 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
4840 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
4841 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
4842 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
4843 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
4845 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
4847 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
4848 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
4849 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
4850 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
4851 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
4852 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
4853 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
4855 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
4856 scm_remember_upto_here
4858 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
4860 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
4862 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
4863 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
4865 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
4867 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
4869 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
4871 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
4873 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
4875 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
4876 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
4877 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
4878 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
4879 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
4880 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
4882 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
4884 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4886 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
4887 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4888 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
4890 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
4892 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
4893 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4894 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
4896 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
4898 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
4899 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
4902 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
4905 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
4906 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
4909 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4911 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
4913 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
4915 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4917 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
4919 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
4921 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
4922 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
4923 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
4924 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
4925 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
4926 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
4927 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
4928 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
4929 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
4930 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
4931 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
4932 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
4933 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
4934 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
4935 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
4937 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
4938 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
4939 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
4940 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
4941 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
4942 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
4943 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
4944 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
4945 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4946 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
4947 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
4948 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
4949 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
4950 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
4951 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
4952 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4953 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4954 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
4955 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
4956 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
4957 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
4958 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
4959 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
4960 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
4961 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
4962 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
4963 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
4964 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
4965 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
4967 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
4969 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
4971 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
4972 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
4974 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
4976 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
4978 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
4980 Use scm_string_hash instead.
4982 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
4984 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
4986 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
4988 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
4990 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
4993 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
4994 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
4996 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
4998 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
5000 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
5002 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
5004 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
5006 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
5008 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
5010 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
5013 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
5015 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
5017 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
5019 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
5020 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
5022 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
5023 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
5025 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
5027 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
5028 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
5029 scm_module_define, scm_define.
5031 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
5033 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
5035 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
5036 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
5038 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
5039 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
5040 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
5041 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
5043 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
5044 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
5045 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
5047 Use the new ones from above instead.
5049 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
5051 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
5052 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
5053 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
5055 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
5056 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
5058 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
5059 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
5062 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
5063 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
5065 Use the new functions instead.
5067 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
5070 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
5072 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
5074 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
5077 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
5079 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
5082 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
5084 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
5087 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
5088 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
5089 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
5091 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
5093 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
5094 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
5096 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
5097 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
5098 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
5099 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
5102 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
5104 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
5105 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
5106 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
5107 inexact for an exact.
5109 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
5110 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
5111 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
5114 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
5115 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
5116 accept an inexact argument.
5118 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
5119 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
5121 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
5124 ** New number validation macros:
5125 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
5129 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
5131 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
5132 scm_unprotect_object.
5134 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
5136 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
5138 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
5141 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
5143 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
5147 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
5149 * Changes to the distribution
5151 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
5153 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
5154 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
5155 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
5156 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
5157 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
5158 obtain these programs.
5159 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
5160 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
5162 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
5163 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
5164 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
5165 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
5166 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
5168 However, this approach means that minor differences between
5169 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
5170 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
5171 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
5175 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
5178 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
5179 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
5180 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
5181 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
5183 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
5185 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
5187 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
5188 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
5190 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
5191 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
5193 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
5194 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
5196 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
5197 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
5198 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
5199 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
5201 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
5203 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
5207 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
5208 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
5210 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
5212 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
5213 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
5215 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
5216 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
5217 number of objects of that kind.
5219 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
5221 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
5222 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
5223 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
5224 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
5225 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
5227 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
5229 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
5231 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
5233 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
5236 ** New module (ice-9 time)
5238 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
5240 ** New module (ice-9 history)
5242 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
5244 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5246 ** New command line option --debug
5248 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
5250 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
5252 ** New help facility
5254 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
5255 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
5256 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
5257 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
5258 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
5259 (help) gives this text
5261 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
5262 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
5264 Examples: (help help)
5266 (help "output-string")
5268 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
5270 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
5272 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
5273 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
5276 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
5277 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
5278 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
5281 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
5282 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
5283 use absolute filenames when possible.
5285 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
5286 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
5287 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
5290 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
5292 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
5293 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
5294 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
5295 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
5297 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
5299 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
5301 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
5302 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
5303 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
5305 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
5306 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
5307 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
5309 (read-enable 'positions)
5310 (debug-enable 'debug)
5312 ** Backtraces in scripts
5314 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
5318 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
5320 at the top of the script.
5322 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
5323 The second enables backtraces.)
5325 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
5327 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
5328 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
5329 substantially faster than before.
5331 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
5332 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
5334 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
5335 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
5337 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
5339 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
5340 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
5341 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
5343 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
5344 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
5345 when this hook is run in the future.
5347 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
5348 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
5350 ** Improvements to garbage collector
5352 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
5353 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
5356 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
5357 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
5358 more and more memory for certain programs.)
5360 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
5361 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
5363 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
5364 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
5366 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
5367 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
5368 in order not to need further allocation.)
5370 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
5373 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
5374 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
5375 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
5376 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
5378 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
5380 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
5383 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
5385 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
5388 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
5389 GC in percent of total heap size
5392 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
5393 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
5395 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
5397 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
5398 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
5400 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
5402 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
5403 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
5405 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
5407 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
5408 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
5412 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
5413 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
5415 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
5417 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5419 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
5421 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
5423 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
5425 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
5426 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
5428 (simple-format port message . args)
5429 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
5430 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
5431 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
5432 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
5433 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
5434 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
5435 Does not add a trailing newline."
5437 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
5439 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
5440 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
5442 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
5443 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
5445 ** Deprecated: list*
5447 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
5449 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
5451 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
5452 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
5454 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
5455 is returned as result.
5457 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
5459 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
5461 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
5463 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
5464 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
5467 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
5469 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
5471 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
5472 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
5474 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5476 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
5478 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
5480 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5482 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
5484 Thanks to Greg Badros!
5486 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
5488 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
5489 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
5490 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
5492 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
5495 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
5497 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
5498 the readability of argument checking.
5500 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
5502 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
5504 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
5506 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
5507 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
5508 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
5509 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
5510 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
5511 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
5512 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
5514 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
5516 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
5518 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
5519 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
5521 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
5523 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
5524 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
5527 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
5529 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
5530 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
5531 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
5533 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
5534 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
5535 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
5537 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
5538 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
5539 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
5540 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
5541 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
5542 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
5543 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
5545 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
5546 scm_end_input (object);
5547 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
5548 ptob->flush (object);
5550 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
5551 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
5554 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
5556 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
5558 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
5559 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
5560 removed in a future version.
5562 ** The format of error message strings has changed
5564 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
5565 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
5566 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
5567 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
5569 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
5570 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
5572 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
5575 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
5577 in your configure.in.
5579 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
5584 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
5590 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
5592 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
5596 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
5597 (define make-message string-append)
5599 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
5601 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
5605 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
5610 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
5614 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
5616 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
5617 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
5619 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
5621 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
5622 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
5623 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
5624 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
5625 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
5626 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
5628 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
5629 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
5630 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
5632 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
5633 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
5634 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
5637 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
5638 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
5639 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
5640 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
5641 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
5643 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
5644 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
5645 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
5646 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
5647 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
5648 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
5649 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
5651 Destructors are not yet implemented.
5653 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
5654 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
5655 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
5657 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
5658 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
5659 KEY in the calling thread.
5661 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
5662 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
5663 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
5664 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
5665 associated with the key.
5667 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
5669 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
5670 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
5672 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
5674 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
5675 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
5676 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
5678 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
5680 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
5681 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
5683 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
5685 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
5687 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
5688 returned is undefined.
5690 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
5691 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
5692 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
5694 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
5695 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
5696 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
5698 ** New C level GC hooks
5700 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
5702 scm_before_gc_c_hook
5705 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
5706 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
5707 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
5709 scm_before_mark_c_hook
5710 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
5711 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
5713 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
5714 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
5717 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
5719 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
5720 allocation parameters
5722 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
5723 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
5724 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
5728 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
5729 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
5730 scm_default_max_segment_size
5732 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
5734 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
5735 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
5737 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
5739 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
5740 object and count on the object being protected until
5741 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
5743 The functions also have better time complexity.
5745 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
5746 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
5747 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
5748 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
5749 are no longer needed.
5751 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
5753 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
5754 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
5755 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
5756 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
5758 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
5760 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
5762 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
5764 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
5765 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
5766 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
5767 until this issue has been settled.
5769 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
5771 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
5773 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
5776 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
5778 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5780 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
5781 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
5782 descriptors were checked.
5784 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
5785 atomically written to a pipe.
5787 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
5788 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
5789 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
5790 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
5791 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
5792 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
5793 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
5796 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
5797 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
5798 is changed without calling tzset.
5800 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
5802 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
5803 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
5804 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
5806 (define write-network-long
5807 (lambda (value port)
5808 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5809 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
5810 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
5812 (define read-network-long
5814 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5815 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
5816 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
5818 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
5819 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
5821 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
5822 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
5823 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
5824 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
5826 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
5827 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
5828 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
5829 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
5833 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
5835 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5839 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
5840 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
5841 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
5847 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
5848 for a description of available commands.
5850 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
5851 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
5852 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
5854 (debug-enable 'backwards)
5856 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
5857 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
5859 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
5861 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
5863 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
5864 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
5865 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
5866 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
5867 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
5868 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
5871 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
5873 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
5874 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
5875 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
5876 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
5878 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
5879 the file and should not be affected by this change.
5881 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
5883 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5885 ** Readline support has changed again.
5887 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
5888 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
5889 to activate readline is now
5891 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
5894 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
5896 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
5897 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
5898 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
5901 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
5902 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
5903 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
5906 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
5907 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
5908 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
5909 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
5910 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
5911 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
5913 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
5914 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
5916 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
5918 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
5919 object it receives is the same string passed to
5920 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
5921 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
5922 string, not the suffix.
5924 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
5925 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
5926 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
5928 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
5930 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
5931 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
5932 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
5933 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
5936 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5938 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
5940 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
5941 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
5942 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
5943 appear from left to right.
5945 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
5948 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
5950 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
5951 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
5953 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5957 *** New function: hook? OBJ
5959 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
5961 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
5963 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
5964 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
5965 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
5967 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
5969 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
5971 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
5973 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
5976 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
5978 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
5979 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
5980 mentioning it here anyway.
5982 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
5984 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
5985 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
5986 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
5987 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
5990 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
5992 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
5994 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
5996 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
5997 otherwise return #f.
5999 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
6001 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
6002 returned by `opendir'.
6004 ** New function: using-readline?
6006 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
6008 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
6010 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
6011 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
6013 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6015 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
6017 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
6018 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
6019 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
6021 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
6023 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
6024 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
6026 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
6028 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
6029 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
6030 documentation slots are not yet used.
6032 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
6034 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
6035 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
6036 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
6041 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
6042 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
6043 (string-append x y))
6045 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
6046 can also be used for concatenating strings.
6048 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
6049 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
6050 be made in a clean way.]
6052 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
6054 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
6056 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
6058 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
6059 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
6061 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
6063 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
6065 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
6067 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
6069 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
6070 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
6071 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
6072 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
6075 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
6077 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
6079 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
6081 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
6083 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
6084 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
6086 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
6088 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
6090 Evaluates the body of a special form.
6092 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
6094 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
6095 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
6096 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
6097 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
6098 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
6099 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
6101 This should not make any difference for most users.
6103 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
6105 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
6106 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
6108 *** New functions for applying generic functions
6110 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
6111 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
6112 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
6113 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
6114 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
6116 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
6118 It is now replaced by:
6120 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
6122 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
6123 binds a variable named NAME to it.
6125 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
6127 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
6128 This might change when we get the new module system.
6130 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
6134 Changes since Guile 1.3:
6136 * Changes to mailing lists
6138 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
6140 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
6143 * Changes to the distribution
6145 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
6147 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
6148 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
6149 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
6150 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
6151 you explicitly specify it.
6153 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
6154 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
6155 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
6156 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
6157 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
6160 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
6161 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
6162 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
6163 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
6165 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
6166 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
6167 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
6170 You can activate the readline support by issuing
6172 (use-modules (readline-activator))
6175 from your ".guile" file, for example.
6177 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6179 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
6180 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
6181 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
6182 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
6184 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
6185 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
6188 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6190 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
6191 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
6192 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
6193 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
6194 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
6195 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
6196 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
6197 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
6209 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
6210 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
6211 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
6212 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
6213 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
6218 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
6219 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
6227 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
6232 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
6233 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
6236 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
6237 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
6238 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
6239 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
6241 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
6243 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
6245 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
6246 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
6248 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
6250 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
6252 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
6253 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
6255 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
6258 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
6260 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
6262 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
6264 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
6266 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
6268 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
6270 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
6271 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
6272 when the hook was created.
6274 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
6275 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
6276 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
6277 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
6278 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
6279 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
6280 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
6281 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
6282 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
6284 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
6285 the dlopen family of functions.
6287 ** New function `provided?'
6289 - Function: provided? FEATURE
6290 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
6291 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
6292 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
6294 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
6296 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
6297 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
6298 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
6299 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
6302 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
6303 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
6304 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
6305 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
6307 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
6308 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
6309 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
6312 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
6313 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
6314 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
6315 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
6316 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
6317 but with the flag set.
6319 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
6321 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
6322 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
6324 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
6325 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
6326 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
6327 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
6328 available Scheme format implementations.
6330 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
6331 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
6332 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
6333 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
6334 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
6335 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
6336 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
6337 output is to the current error port if available by the
6338 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
6341 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
6342 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
6343 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
6344 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
6345 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
6346 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
6347 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
6348 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
6350 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
6351 be executed at a time.
6354 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
6356 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
6357 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
6358 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
6360 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
6361 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
6362 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
6363 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
6364 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
6365 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
6366 general form of a directive is:
6368 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
6370 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
6372 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
6374 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
6375 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
6376 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
6379 Any (print as `display' does).
6383 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
6387 S-expression (print as `write' does).
6391 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
6397 print number sign always.
6400 print comma separated.
6402 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
6408 print number sign always.
6411 print comma separated.
6413 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
6419 print number sign always.
6422 print comma separated.
6424 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
6430 print number sign always.
6433 print comma separated.
6435 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
6440 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
6444 print a number as a Roman numeral.
6447 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
6450 print a number as an ordinal English number.
6453 print a number as a cardinal English number.
6458 prints `y' and `ies'.
6461 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
6464 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
6469 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
6473 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
6476 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
6477 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
6479 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6482 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
6483 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
6485 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6488 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
6490 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
6492 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6495 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
6497 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
6499 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6502 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
6505 The sign appears before the padding.
6513 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
6515 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
6520 print N page separators.
6530 newline is ignored, white space left.
6533 newline is left, white space ignored.
6538 relative tabulation.
6544 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
6546 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
6549 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
6551 converts by `string-capitalize'.
6554 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
6557 converts by `string-upcase'.
6560 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
6562 jumps N arguments forward.
6565 jumps 1 argument backward.
6568 jumps N arguments backward.
6571 jumps to the 0th argument.
6574 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
6576 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
6577 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
6579 take argument from N.
6582 true test conditional.
6585 if-else-then conditional.
6591 default clause follows.
6594 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
6596 at most N iterations.
6599 args from next arg (a list of lists).
6602 args from the rest of arguments.
6605 args from the rest args (lists).
6616 aborts if N <= M <= K
6618 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
6621 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
6624 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
6630 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
6632 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
6634 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
6635 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
6636 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
6637 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
6638 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
6639 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
6643 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
6647 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
6653 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
6656 Print a `#\space' character
6658 print N `#\space' characters.
6661 Print a `#\tab' character
6663 print N `#\tab' characters.
6666 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
6667 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
6668 must be a positive decimal number.
6671 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
6672 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
6673 be processed by `read'.
6676 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
6677 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
6678 be processed by `read'.
6681 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
6684 prints format version.
6687 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
6688 and format it accordingly.
6690 *** Configuration Variables
6692 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
6693 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
6694 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
6695 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
6698 format:symbol-case-conv
6699 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
6700 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
6701 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
6702 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
6703 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
6705 format:iobj-case-conv
6706 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
6707 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
6710 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
6713 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
6719 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
6720 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
6721 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
6722 `format' padding style.
6725 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
6726 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
6727 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
6728 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
6732 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
6733 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
6734 directive parameters or modifiers)).
6737 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
6738 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
6739 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
6740 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
6741 parameters or modifiers)).
6744 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
6746 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
6748 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
6749 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
6751 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
6752 string-downcase! functions.
6754 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
6755 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
6757 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
6760 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
6763 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
6764 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
6766 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
6768 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
6769 the symbol had be read by `read'.
6771 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
6772 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
6773 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
6774 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
6775 would if STRING were input.
6777 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
6779 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
6780 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
6781 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
6782 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
6785 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
6787 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
6788 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
6791 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
6793 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
6794 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
6796 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
6797 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
6799 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
6800 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
6801 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
6802 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
6804 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
6805 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
6807 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
6808 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
6809 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
6811 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
6812 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
6814 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
6815 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
6816 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
6817 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
6818 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
6820 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
6821 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
6822 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
6823 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
6824 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
6825 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
6827 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
6828 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
6829 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
6832 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
6833 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
6834 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
6835 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
6836 the following grammar:
6837 ((apples (single-char #\a))
6838 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
6839 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
6840 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
6841 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
6842 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
6843 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
6844 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
6845 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
6846 last option in its combination)
6848 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
6849 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
6850 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
6851 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
6853 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
6854 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
6855 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
6857 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6858 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6859 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
6861 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
6862 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
6863 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
6864 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
6865 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
6866 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
6867 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
6868 ordinary argument strings.
6870 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
6871 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
6872 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
6873 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
6875 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
6876 as a list, associated with the empty list.
6878 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
6879 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
6880 - a required option is omitted
6881 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
6882 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
6883 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
6884 - an option predicate fails
6889 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
6892 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
6893 (verbose (required? #f)
6896 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
6897 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
6898 (predicate ,string?))))
6900 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
6901 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6903 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6904 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
6905 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
6906 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
6909 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
6911 It will be removed in a few releases.
6913 ** New syntax: lambda*
6914 ** New syntax: define*
6915 ** New syntax: define*-public
6916 ** New syntax: defmacro*
6917 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
6918 Guile now supports optional arguments.
6920 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
6921 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
6922 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
6923 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
6924 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
6926 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
6927 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
6928 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
6930 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
6932 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
6933 and examples for `lambda*':
6936 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
6938 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
6939 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
6940 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
6941 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
6942 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
6943 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
6944 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
6945 can be checked with the bound? macro.
6947 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
6949 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
6950 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
6951 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
6952 are given as keywords are bound to values.
6954 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
6955 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
6956 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
6957 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
6958 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
6959 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
6960 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
6961 and until the procedure is called.
6963 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
6965 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
6966 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
6967 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
6968 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
6969 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
6970 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
6971 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
6972 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
6973 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
6974 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
6976 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
6977 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
6978 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
6979 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
6982 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
6984 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
6985 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
6986 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
6987 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
6989 ** New syntax: and-let*
6990 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
6992 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
6993 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
6994 (<variable> <expression>)
6997 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
6998 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
6999 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
7002 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
7003 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
7004 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
7005 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
7006 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
7007 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
7008 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
7010 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
7011 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
7012 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
7013 shadow earlier bindings.
7015 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
7017 ** New sorting functions
7019 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
7020 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
7021 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
7022 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
7024 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
7025 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
7028 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
7029 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
7030 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
7032 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
7033 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
7034 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
7035 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
7037 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
7038 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
7039 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
7040 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
7041 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
7044 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
7045 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
7046 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
7047 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
7048 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
7049 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
7051 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
7052 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
7053 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
7055 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
7056 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
7057 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
7060 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
7061 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
7062 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
7064 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
7065 Added for compatibility with scsh.
7067 ** New built-in random number support
7069 *** New function: random N [STATE]
7070 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
7071 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
7072 returned have a uniform distribution.
7074 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
7075 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
7076 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
7077 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
7078 effect of the `random' operation.
7080 *** New variable: *random-state*
7081 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
7082 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
7083 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
7084 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
7085 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
7088 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
7089 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
7090 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
7091 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
7092 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
7094 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
7095 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
7096 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
7097 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
7098 initialized using SEED.
7100 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
7101 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
7102 range between 0 and 1.
7104 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
7105 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
7106 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
7107 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
7108 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
7109 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
7110 or a uniform vector of doubles.
7112 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
7113 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
7114 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
7115 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
7116 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
7117 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
7119 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
7120 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
7121 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
7122 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
7124 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
7125 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
7126 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
7127 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
7129 *** New function: random:exp STATE
7130 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
7131 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
7133 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
7135 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
7138 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
7139 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
7142 ** New function: make-guardian
7143 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
7144 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
7145 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
7146 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
7147 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
7149 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
7150 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
7151 one object if at all.
7153 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
7154 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
7155 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
7157 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
7158 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
7159 read again in last-in first-out order.
7161 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
7162 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
7164 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
7166 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
7167 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
7168 file position is used.
7170 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
7171 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
7172 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
7174 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
7175 redefined using seek.
7177 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
7178 size is not supplied.
7180 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
7181 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
7183 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
7184 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
7186 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
7188 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
7189 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
7190 and returns the contents as a single string.
7192 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
7193 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
7194 lists in serial order.
7196 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
7197 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
7198 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
7200 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
7201 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
7202 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
7203 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
7205 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
7206 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
7207 and #f if an error occured.
7209 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
7211 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
7212 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
7213 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
7214 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
7216 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
7218 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
7221 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
7223 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
7226 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7230 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
7231 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
7233 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
7234 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
7238 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7240 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
7242 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
7243 binds a variable named NAME to it.
7245 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
7247 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
7248 might change when we get the new module system.
7250 ** The smob interface
7252 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
7253 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
7255 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
7257 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
7261 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
7262 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
7263 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
7264 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
7265 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
7266 will be freed by the default free function.
7268 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
7269 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
7270 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
7271 `scm_make_smob_type'.
7273 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
7274 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
7275 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
7276 `scm_make_smob_type'.
7278 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
7280 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
7281 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
7285 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
7286 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
7287 `scm_make_smob_type'.
7289 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
7290 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
7291 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
7292 `scm_make_smob_type'.
7294 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
7295 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
7296 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
7298 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
7299 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
7300 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
7301 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
7303 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
7304 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
7305 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
7307 *** scm_newptob has been removed
7311 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
7313 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
7314 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
7315 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
7317 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
7318 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
7319 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
7321 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
7322 a string port's buffer.
7324 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
7325 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
7326 function pointers which together define the current random number
7327 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
7328 number library functions.
7330 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
7333 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
7334 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
7337 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
7338 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
7340 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
7341 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
7343 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
7344 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
7347 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
7348 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
7349 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
7350 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
7352 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
7353 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
7354 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
7355 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
7356 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
7357 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
7358 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
7360 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
7361 by libguile and the application.
7363 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
7364 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
7365 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
7366 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
7368 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
7369 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
7371 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
7372 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
7373 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
7375 ** Random number library functions
7376 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
7377 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
7378 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
7380 The default random state is stored in:
7382 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
7383 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
7384 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
7389 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
7391 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
7392 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
7393 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
7394 isn't a random state.
7396 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
7397 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
7399 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
7400 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
7401 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
7402 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
7404 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
7405 Return 32 random bits.
7407 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
7408 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
7410 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
7411 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
7413 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
7414 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
7416 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
7417 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
7419 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
7420 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
7421 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
7425 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
7427 * Changes to the distribution
7429 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
7430 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
7431 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
7434 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
7435 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
7436 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
7438 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
7439 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
7440 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
7441 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
7444 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
7445 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
7446 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
7448 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
7450 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
7452 *** Function: batch-mode?
7454 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
7457 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
7459 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
7460 case has not been implemented.
7462 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
7463 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
7464 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
7467 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
7468 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
7470 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
7472 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7474 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
7476 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
7477 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
7480 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
7481 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
7482 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
7483 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
7486 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
7488 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
7489 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
7490 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
7491 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
7492 find those libraries.
7494 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
7495 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
7498 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
7500 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
7501 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
7502 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
7503 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
7505 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
7506 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
7507 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
7511 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
7513 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
7514 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
7515 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
7518 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
7519 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
7520 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
7521 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
7523 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
7524 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
7527 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
7528 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
7529 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
7530 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
7531 compiler where to find the libraries.
7533 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
7534 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
7535 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
7537 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
7538 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
7539 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
7540 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
7541 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
7545 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7547 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
7548 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
7549 internationalization support.
7551 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
7552 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
7553 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
7554 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
7555 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
7557 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
7558 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
7559 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
7560 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
7561 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
7563 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
7564 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
7565 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
7566 any GNU mirror site.
7568 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
7570 ** New function: add-history STRING
7571 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
7572 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
7573 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
7575 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
7577 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
7578 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
7579 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
7582 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
7583 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
7584 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
7586 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
7588 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
7591 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
7592 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
7595 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
7596 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
7597 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
7598 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
7599 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
7600 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
7602 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
7603 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
7604 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
7605 of the form mentioned above.
7607 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
7608 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
7609 returned in the special `rest' list.
7611 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
7612 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
7614 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
7616 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
7618 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
7620 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
7621 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
7622 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
7623 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
7624 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
7625 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
7626 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
7627 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
7630 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
7632 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
7634 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
7635 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
7638 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
7639 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
7640 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
7644 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
7645 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
7646 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
7647 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
7648 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
7649 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
7650 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
7651 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
7654 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
7656 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
7657 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
7658 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
7660 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
7662 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
7663 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
7665 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
7666 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
7667 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
7669 Why do we have this function?
7670 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
7671 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
7672 primitive, and display it differently, and
7673 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
7674 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
7677 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
7678 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
7681 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
7682 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
7683 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
7684 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
7686 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
7687 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
7690 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
7691 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
7693 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
7695 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
7696 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
7697 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
7698 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
7699 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
7700 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
7701 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
7704 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
7706 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
7707 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
7709 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
7710 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
7711 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
7712 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
7713 properly continue the print chain.
7715 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
7716 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
7717 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
7718 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
7719 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
7720 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
7721 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
7722 print-state, it is simply ignored.
7724 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
7725 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
7726 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
7727 safest to not check for these pairs.
7729 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
7730 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
7731 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
7732 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
7734 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
7736 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
7737 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
7739 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
7741 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
7743 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
7744 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
7745 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
7747 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
7748 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
7749 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
7751 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
7752 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
7753 the following functions and macros:
7755 Function: make-fluid
7757 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
7758 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
7759 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
7760 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
7761 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
7763 Function: fluid? OBJ
7765 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
7767 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
7768 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
7770 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
7771 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
7773 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
7775 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
7776 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
7777 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
7778 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
7779 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
7780 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
7781 modified by `with-fluids*'.
7783 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
7785 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
7786 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
7787 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
7788 should evaluate to a fluid.
7790 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
7792 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
7793 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
7794 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
7795 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
7796 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
7798 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
7801 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
7803 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
7805 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
7807 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
7810 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
7811 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
7812 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
7813 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
7814 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
7817 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
7818 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
7819 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
7821 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
7822 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
7823 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
7825 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
7826 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
7827 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7828 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
7830 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
7831 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
7832 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7833 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
7835 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
7836 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
7837 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
7838 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
7840 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
7841 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
7842 their revealed counts set to zero.
7844 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7845 Returns an integer file descriptor.
7847 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7848 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
7850 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7851 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
7853 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7854 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
7855 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
7857 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
7858 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
7859 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
7861 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
7862 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
7863 default environment inherited by child processes.
7865 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
7866 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
7867 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
7869 The return value is unspecified.
7871 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
7872 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
7873 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
7874 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
7875 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
7877 The return value is unspecified.
7879 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
7880 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
7888 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
7889 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
7892 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
7895 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
7896 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
7897 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
7899 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
7900 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
7901 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
7902 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
7905 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
7906 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
7908 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
7909 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
7910 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
7911 the `environ' procedure.
7913 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
7914 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
7917 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
7918 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
7920 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
7921 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
7922 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
7923 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
7925 *** procedure: times
7926 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
7927 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
7928 return a selected component:
7931 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
7935 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
7938 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
7942 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
7943 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
7947 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
7948 terminated child processes.
7950 ** Removed: list-length
7951 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
7952 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
7954 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
7956 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
7958 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
7960 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
7961 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
7962 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
7963 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
7965 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
7966 extra complexity it introduces.
7968 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
7969 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
7971 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
7972 variable to any non-empty value.
7974 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
7975 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
7977 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7979 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
7980 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
7982 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
7984 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
7985 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
7987 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
7989 ** vector handling routines
7991 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
7992 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
7993 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
7994 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
7995 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
7997 ** pair and list routines
7999 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
8002 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
8004 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
8007 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8009 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
8011 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
8012 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
8013 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
8014 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
8015 site-specific initialization code.
8017 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
8018 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
8019 initialization processes.
8021 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
8022 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
8023 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
8024 initialized properly.
8026 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
8027 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
8028 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
8030 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
8031 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
8032 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
8033 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
8034 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
8036 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
8038 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
8039 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
8040 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
8041 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
8042 objects the smob refers to get marked.
8044 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
8045 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
8046 which look like this:
8049 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
8051 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
8052 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
8055 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
8056 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
8059 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
8061 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
8062 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
8063 you will need to change your functions slightly.
8065 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
8066 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
8067 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
8068 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
8069 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
8071 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
8072 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
8074 int (*free) (SCM port);
8075 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
8076 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
8077 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
8081 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
8082 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
8083 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
8085 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
8088 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
8089 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
8090 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
8092 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
8093 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
8094 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
8097 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
8101 struct timeval *timeout);
8103 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
8104 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
8105 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
8106 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
8107 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
8108 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
8110 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
8111 scm_catch_body_t body,
8113 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
8116 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
8117 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
8118 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
8119 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
8120 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
8121 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
8123 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
8125 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
8128 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
8129 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
8130 spawning threads from application C code.
8132 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
8133 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
8134 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
8135 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
8136 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
8137 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
8139 ** Removed functions:
8141 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
8142 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
8144 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
8146 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
8147 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
8149 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
8151 ** mbstrings are now removed
8153 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
8154 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
8156 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
8158 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
8159 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
8160 their new names and arguments:
8162 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
8163 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
8164 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
8165 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
8168 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
8170 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
8172 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
8175 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
8177 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
8178 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
8179 pass a #f arg to catch.
8181 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
8183 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
8184 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
8187 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
8188 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
8189 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
8190 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
8191 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
8192 reclaim its storage.
8194 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
8195 worrying that some other function you call will call
8196 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
8197 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
8198 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
8199 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
8202 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
8204 * Changes to the distribution
8206 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
8207 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
8210 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
8211 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
8213 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
8214 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
8216 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
8218 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
8219 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
8220 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
8222 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
8224 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
8225 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
8226 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
8227 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
8228 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
8229 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
8231 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
8232 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
8233 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
8236 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
8237 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
8238 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
8239 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
8241 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
8242 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
8243 libraries to your link command:
8245 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
8246 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
8247 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
8248 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
8250 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
8251 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
8252 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
8254 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
8256 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
8257 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
8260 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
8262 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
8263 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
8264 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
8265 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
8266 searched is system dependent.
8268 (dynamic-object? VAL)
8270 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
8272 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
8274 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
8275 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
8277 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
8279 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
8280 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
8281 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
8282 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
8283 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
8286 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
8288 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
8289 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
8290 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
8291 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
8292 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
8294 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
8296 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
8297 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
8299 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
8301 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
8302 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
8303 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
8306 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
8308 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
8309 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
8310 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
8311 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
8313 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
8314 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
8316 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
8318 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
8319 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
8321 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
8323 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
8324 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
8332 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
8334 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
8335 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
8336 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
8337 a more informative way.
8339 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
8340 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
8341 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
8342 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
8343 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
8344 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
8346 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
8347 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
8350 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
8351 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
8352 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
8355 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
8356 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
8357 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
8358 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
8359 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
8360 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
8362 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
8363 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
8364 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
8365 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
8368 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
8369 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
8370 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
8371 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
8372 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
8373 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
8375 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
8376 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
8377 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
8378 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
8379 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
8381 *** regexp functions
8383 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
8384 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
8385 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
8387 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
8388 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
8389 with SCSH regular expressions.
8391 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
8392 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
8393 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
8394 position of STR at which to begin matching.
8396 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
8397 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
8398 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
8399 `string-match' returns `#f'.
8401 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
8402 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
8403 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
8404 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
8405 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
8406 match strings against the compiled regexp.
8408 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
8409 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
8410 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
8411 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
8412 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
8414 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
8416 **** Constant: regexp/extended
8417 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
8418 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
8419 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
8421 **** Constant: regexp/icase
8422 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
8423 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
8425 **** Constant: regexp/newline
8426 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
8428 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
8431 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
8432 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
8433 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
8435 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
8436 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
8437 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
8439 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
8440 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
8441 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
8442 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
8443 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
8446 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
8448 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
8449 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
8450 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
8451 used when different portions of a string are passed to
8452 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
8453 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
8455 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
8456 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
8457 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
8459 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
8460 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
8463 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
8464 and replace them with the contents of another string.
8466 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
8467 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
8468 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
8469 may be one of the following arguments:
8471 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
8473 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
8475 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
8476 the regexp match is written.
8478 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
8479 following the regexp match is written.
8481 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
8482 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
8485 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
8486 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
8487 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
8488 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
8489 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
8490 which should be matched against this regular expression.
8492 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
8495 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
8496 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
8497 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
8498 written out to PORT.
8500 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
8501 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
8502 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
8503 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
8504 will return after processing a single match.
8506 *** Match Structures
8508 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
8509 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
8510 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
8511 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
8512 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
8513 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
8516 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
8517 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
8518 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
8519 information about the original target string that was matched against a
8520 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
8522 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
8523 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
8524 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
8526 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
8527 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
8528 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
8529 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
8530 number N did not match, return `#f'.
8532 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
8533 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
8535 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
8536 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
8538 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
8539 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
8541 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
8542 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
8544 **** Function: match:count MATCH
8545 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
8546 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
8547 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
8549 **** Function: match:string MATCH
8550 Return the original TARGET string.
8552 *** Backslash Escapes
8554 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
8555 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
8556 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
8557 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
8558 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
8559 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
8561 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
8562 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
8563 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
8564 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
8565 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
8566 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
8567 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
8568 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
8570 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
8571 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
8572 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
8573 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
8574 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
8575 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
8576 each match a single backslash in the target string.
8578 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
8579 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
8580 return the resulting string.
8582 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
8583 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
8584 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
8585 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
8586 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
8587 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
8588 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
8589 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
8590 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
8591 translated to the single character `*'.
8593 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
8594 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
8595 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
8596 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
8597 consecutive backslashes:
8599 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
8601 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
8602 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
8603 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
8605 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
8606 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
8607 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
8608 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
8609 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
8610 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
8612 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
8614 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
8615 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
8616 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
8617 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
8618 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
8619 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
8620 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
8621 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
8622 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
8623 cumbersome escape syntax.
8625 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8627 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8629 * Changes to system call interfaces:
8631 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
8634 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
8636 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
8638 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
8641 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
8642 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
8643 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
8644 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
8645 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
8647 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
8648 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
8649 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
8650 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
8651 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
8652 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
8653 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
8656 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
8657 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
8658 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
8661 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
8662 `force-output' on every port open for output.
8664 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
8665 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
8666 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
8667 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
8668 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
8669 installed, you can say:
8671 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
8674 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8676 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
8677 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
8678 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
8679 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
8680 new dynamic roots and threads.
8683 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
8685 * Changes to the distribution.
8687 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
8689 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
8690 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
8691 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
8692 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
8693 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
8694 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
8695 programming language. These are packaged together because the
8696 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
8698 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
8701 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
8702 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
8707 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
8709 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
8710 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
8712 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
8713 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
8714 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
8715 the (command-line) function.
8716 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
8717 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
8718 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
8720 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
8721 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
8722 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
8723 command line arguments
8724 -ds do -s script at this point
8725 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
8726 -h, --help display this help and exit
8727 -v, --version display version information and exit
8728 \ read arguments from following script lines
8730 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
8731 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
8733 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8736 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8740 (main (command-line))
8742 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
8744 ekko a speckled gecko
8746 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
8747 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
8748 following list of command-line arguments:
8750 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
8752 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
8753 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
8754 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
8755 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
8756 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8758 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
8760 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
8762 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
8763 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
8766 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
8767 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
8768 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
8769 SCSH) for circumventing them.
8771 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
8772 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
8773 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
8774 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
8776 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
8780 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8784 If the user invokes this script as follows:
8786 ekko a speckled gecko
8788 Unix expands this into
8790 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
8792 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
8793 read from the second line of the script, producing:
8795 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8797 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
8798 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8800 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
8801 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
8802 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
8803 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
8804 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
8805 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
8806 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
8807 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
8808 it only terminates the argument list.)
8809 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
8810 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
8811 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
8812 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
8813 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
8814 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
8815 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
8816 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
8818 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
8820 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
8821 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
8822 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
8823 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
8824 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
8826 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
8827 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
8828 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
8830 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
8832 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
8833 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
8834 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
8835 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
8838 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
8839 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
8840 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
8842 * Changes to Scheme functions
8844 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
8845 and disabled by default.
8847 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
8848 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
8849 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
8850 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
8852 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
8854 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
8856 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
8857 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
8859 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
8860 (read-set! keywords #f)
8862 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
8863 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
8864 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
8867 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
8868 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
8869 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
8872 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
8873 support for Scheme functions.
8875 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8876 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
8877 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
8878 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
8881 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8882 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
8883 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
8886 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
8887 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
8888 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
8891 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
8892 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
8893 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
8894 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
8895 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
8896 display the result as a prompt.
8897 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
8899 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
8900 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
8901 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
8904 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
8905 procedure of zero arguments.
8907 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
8908 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
8909 argument is bound in the current module.
8911 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
8912 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
8913 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
8914 public bindings into the current module.
8916 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
8917 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
8919 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
8920 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
8922 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
8923 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
8925 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
8926 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
8928 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
8929 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
8931 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
8932 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
8933 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
8934 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
8935 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
8937 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
8938 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
8939 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
8940 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
8942 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
8945 ** Changes to I/O functions
8947 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
8948 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
8949 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
8951 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
8952 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
8953 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
8955 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
8956 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
8958 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
8959 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
8960 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
8961 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
8963 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
8965 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
8966 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
8968 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
8969 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
8970 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
8971 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
8972 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
8975 'trim omit delimiter from result
8976 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
8977 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
8978 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
8980 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
8982 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
8983 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
8985 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
8986 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
8987 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
8988 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
8989 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
8991 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
8992 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
8993 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
8995 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
8996 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
8997 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
8998 above, and defaults to 'peek.
9000 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
9001 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
9003 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
9004 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
9006 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
9008 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
9009 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
9010 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
9011 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
9012 a delimiting character.
9013 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
9015 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
9016 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
9017 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
9018 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
9019 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
9020 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
9022 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
9023 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
9025 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
9026 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
9027 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
9029 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
9030 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
9031 the array to read and write.
9033 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
9034 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
9037 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
9039 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
9042 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
9043 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
9044 Values for COMMAND are:
9046 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
9047 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
9048 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
9049 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
9050 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
9051 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
9052 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
9053 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
9055 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
9057 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
9058 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
9059 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
9060 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
9061 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
9062 corresponding return set will be the same.
9064 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
9067 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
9068 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
9069 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
9070 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
9071 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
9072 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
9073 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
9074 special file being created.
9076 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
9077 clashing with various SCSH forks.
9079 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
9080 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
9081 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
9082 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
9083 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
9084 and originating address.
9086 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
9087 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
9088 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
9090 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
9093 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
9094 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
9097 (status:exit-val STATUS)
9098 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
9099 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
9100 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
9101 this function returns #f.
9103 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
9104 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
9105 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
9108 (status:term-sig STATUS)
9109 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
9110 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
9113 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
9114 a valid STATUS value.
9116 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
9118 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
9119 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
9121 Component Accessor Setter
9122 ========================= ============ ============
9123 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
9124 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
9125 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
9126 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
9127 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
9128 year tm:year set-tm:year
9129 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
9130 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
9131 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
9132 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
9133 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
9135 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
9136 describing the host system:
9139 ============================================== ================
9140 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
9141 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
9142 release level of the operating system utsname:release
9143 version level of the operating system utsname:version
9144 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
9146 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
9147 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
9148 system's user database:
9151 ====================== =================
9152 user name passwd:name
9153 user password passwd:passwd
9156 real name passwd:gecos
9157 home directory passwd:dir
9158 shell program passwd:shell
9160 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
9161 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
9162 system's group database:
9165 ======================= ============
9166 group name group:name
9167 group password group:passwd
9169 group members group:mem
9171 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
9172 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
9176 ========================= ===============
9177 official name of host hostent:name
9178 alias list hostent:aliases
9179 host address type hostent:addrtype
9180 length of address hostent:length
9181 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
9183 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
9184 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
9188 ========================= ===============
9189 official name of net netent:name
9190 alias list netent:aliases
9191 net number type netent:addrtype
9192 net number netent:net
9194 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
9195 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
9199 ========================= ===============
9200 official protocol name protoent:name
9201 alias list protoent:aliases
9202 protocol number protoent:proto
9204 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
9205 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
9209 ========================= ===============
9210 official service name servent:name
9211 alias list servent:aliases
9212 port number servent:port
9213 protocol to use servent:proto
9215 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
9216 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
9219 ======================================== ===============
9220 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
9221 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
9222 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
9223 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
9225 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
9226 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
9227 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
9229 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
9230 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
9232 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
9233 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
9235 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
9236 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
9238 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
9240 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
9242 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
9243 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
9244 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
9246 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
9247 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
9248 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
9249 return the remaining characters as a string.
9251 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
9252 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
9253 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
9255 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
9257 * Changes to the gh_ interface
9259 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
9262 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
9265 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
9266 and returns the array
9268 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
9269 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
9270 the user to interpret the data both ways.
9272 * Changes to the scm_ interface
9274 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
9275 symbol's value from C code:
9277 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
9278 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
9279 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
9280 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
9282 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
9283 without assigning them a value.
9285 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
9286 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
9287 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
9289 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
9290 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
9291 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
9293 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
9294 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
9296 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
9297 doesn't actually care about that.
9299 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
9300 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
9301 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
9303 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
9304 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
9305 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
9306 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
9307 which we have just created and initialized.
9309 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
9310 should one occur. We call it like this:
9311 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
9313 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
9314 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
9315 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
9316 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
9317 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
9318 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
9321 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
9322 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
9323 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
9324 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
9325 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
9326 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
9327 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
9330 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
9331 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
9332 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
9333 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
9334 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
9337 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
9338 scm_internal_catch, except:
9340 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
9341 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
9342 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
9343 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
9346 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
9347 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
9348 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
9350 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
9351 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
9352 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
9353 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
9356 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
9357 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
9358 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
9360 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
9361 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
9362 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
9363 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
9364 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
9366 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
9367 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
9368 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
9370 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
9371 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
9372 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
9374 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
9375 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
9377 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
9378 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
9379 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
9382 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
9383 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
9384 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
9385 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
9386 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
9387 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
9388 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
9391 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
9392 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
9394 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
9395 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
9396 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
9397 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
9398 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
9401 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
9402 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
9404 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
9405 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
9408 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
9409 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
9411 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
9414 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
9415 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
9416 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
9417 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
9418 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
9419 given the following arguments:
9421 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
9423 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
9425 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
9427 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
9430 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
9431 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
9432 command-line arguments.
9434 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
9435 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
9436 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
9437 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
9438 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
9439 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
9442 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
9445 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
9446 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
9448 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
9449 rearranged slightly. They are now:
9451 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9452 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
9453 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
9454 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
9456 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9457 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
9459 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9460 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
9461 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
9462 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
9464 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9465 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
9467 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
9468 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
9470 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
9472 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
9473 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
9474 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
9477 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
9478 returns a port instead of an FD object.
9480 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
9481 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
9486 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
9489 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
9491 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
9492 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
9493 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
9494 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
9496 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
9498 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
9500 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
9501 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
9502 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
9503 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
9504 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
9505 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
9506 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
9507 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
9508 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
9509 for more information.
9511 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
9512 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
9514 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
9515 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
9516 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
9517 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
9518 following two lines at the top of the file:
9520 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
9523 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
9524 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
9525 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
9527 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
9529 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
9531 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
9534 (display (car args))
9535 (if (pair? (cdr args))
9537 (loop (cdr args)))))
9540 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
9541 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
9542 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
9543 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
9544 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
9545 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
9549 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
9552 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
9555 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
9557 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
9558 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
9559 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
9560 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
9561 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
9564 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
9565 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
9566 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
9567 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
9568 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
9571 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
9574 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
9575 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
9576 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
9579 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
9580 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
9581 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
9583 to see a backtrace, and
9584 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
9585 to see them by default.
9589 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
9591 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
9593 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
9594 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
9597 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
9598 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
9599 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
9600 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
9603 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
9604 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
9605 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
9606 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
9607 functions which inspired them.
9609 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
9610 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
9614 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
9616 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
9618 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
9619 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
9622 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
9623 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
9624 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
9626 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
9627 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
9628 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
9629 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
9630 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
9632 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
9634 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
9635 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
9636 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
9639 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
9642 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
9644 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
9645 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
9646 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
9647 above should serve their purposes.
9649 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
9650 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
9651 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
9652 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
9654 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
9657 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
9658 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
9659 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
9660 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
9662 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
9663 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
9664 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
9665 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
9667 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
9668 for the `read' function.
9671 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
9672 to that of `integer?'.
9674 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
9675 use the R4RS names for these functions.
9677 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
9678 it simply returns the object's property list.
9680 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
9681 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
9682 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
9683 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
9685 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
9687 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
9690 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
9692 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
9693 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
9695 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
9697 void (*main_func) (),
9700 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
9701 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
9702 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
9703 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
9704 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
9706 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
9707 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
9708 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
9709 know which arguments have been processed.
9711 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
9712 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
9713 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
9714 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
9715 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
9717 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
9718 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
9719 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
9720 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
9721 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
9722 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
9723 people from making that mistake.
9725 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
9726 convenient ways to override these when desired.
9728 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
9730 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
9734 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
9737 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
9738 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
9739 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
9740 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
9743 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
9744 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
9745 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
9746 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
9749 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
9750 have been added to the Guile library.
9752 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
9753 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
9754 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
9757 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
9758 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
9759 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
9761 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
9762 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
9763 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
9764 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
9765 argument from the list.
9768 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
9771 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
9772 null-terminated string, and returns it.
9774 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
9775 to a Scheme port object.
9777 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
9778 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
9783 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
9785 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
9786 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
9787 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
9788 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
9789 code as a special datatype.
9791 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
9792 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
9793 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
9794 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
9795 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
9798 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
9799 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
9800 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
9801 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
9802 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
9804 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
9807 Copyright information:
9809 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
9811 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
9812 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
9813 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
9814 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
9816 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
9817 of this document, or of portions of it,
9818 under the above conditions, provided also that they
9819 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
9824 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"