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 2.0.2 (since 2.0.1):
12 ** `guile-tools' renamed to `guild'
14 The new name is shorter. Its intended future use is for a CPAN-like
15 system for Guile wizards and journeyfolk to band together to share code;
16 hence the name. `guile-tools' is provided as a backward-compatible
17 symbolic link. See "Using Guile Tools" in the manual, for more.
19 ** New control operators: `shift' and `reset'
21 See "Shift and Reset" in the manual, for more information.
23 ** `while' as an expression
25 Previously the return value of `while' was unspecified. Now its
26 values are specified both in the case of normal termination, and via
27 termination by invoking `break', possibly with arguments. See "while
28 do" in the manual for more.
30 ** Disallow access to handles of weak hash tables
32 `hash-get-handle' and `hash-create-handle!' are no longer permitted to
33 be called on weak hash tables, because the fields in a weak handle could
34 be nulled out by the garbage collector at any time, but yet they are
35 otherwise indistinguishable from pairs. Use `hash-ref' and `hash-set!'
38 ** More precision for `get-internal-run-time', `get-internal-real-time'
40 On 64-bit systems which support POSIX clocks, Guile's internal timing
41 procedures offer nanosecond resolution instead of the 10-millisecond
42 resolution previously available. 32-bit systems now use 1-millisecond
45 ** Guile now measures time spent in GC
47 `gc-stats' now returns a meaningful value for `gc-time-taken'.
51 The statprof profiler now exports a `gcprof' procedure, driven by the
52 `after-gc-hook', to see which parts of your program are causing GC. Let
53 us know if you find it useful.
55 ** `map', `for-each' and some others now implemented in Scheme
57 We would not mention this in NEWS, as it is not a user-visible change,
58 if it were not for one thing: `map' and `for-each' are no longer
59 primitive generics. Instead they are normal bindings, which can be
60 wrapped by normal generics. This fixes some modularity issues between
61 core `map', SRFI-1 `map', and GOOPS.
63 Also it's pretty cool that we can do this without a performance impact.
65 ** Add `scm_peek_byte_or_eof'.
67 This helper is like `scm_peek_char_or_eof', but for bytes instead of
70 ** Implement #:stop-at-first-non-option option for getopt-long
72 See "getopt-long Reference" in the manual, for more information.
74 ** Improve R6RS conformance for conditions in the I/O libraries
76 The `(rnrs io simple)' module now raises the correct R6RS conditions in
77 error cases. `(rnrs io ports)' is also more correct now, though it is
78 still a work in progress.
80 ** All deprecated routines emit warnings
82 A few deprecated routines were lacking deprecation warnings. This has
87 ** Constants in compiled code now share state better
89 Constants with shared state, like `("foo")' and `"foo"', now share state
90 as much as possible, in the entire compilation unit. This cuts compiled
91 `.go' file sizes in half, generally, and speeds startup.
93 ** VLists: optimize `vlist-fold-right', and add `vhash-fold-right'
95 These procedures are now twice as fast as they were.
97 ** UTF-8 ports to bypass `iconv' entirely
99 This reduces memory usage in a very common case.
103 The compiler is now about 40% faster. (Note that this is only the case
104 once the compiler is itself compiled, so the build still takes as long
109 Some assertions that were mostly useful for sanity-checks on the
110 bytecode compiler are now off for both "regular" and "debug" engines.
111 This together with a fix to cache a TLS access and some other tweaks
112 improve the VM's performance by about 20%.
114 ** SRFI-1 list-set optimizations
116 lset-adjoin and lset-union now have fast paths for eq? sets.
118 ** `memq', `memv' optimizations
120 These procedures are now at least twice as fast than in 2.0.1.
124 ** Deprecate scm_whash API
126 `scm_whash_get_handle', `SCM_WHASHFOUNDP', `SCM_WHASHREF',
127 `SCM_WHASHSET', `scm_whash_create_handle', `scm_whash_lookup', and
128 `scm_whash_insert' are now deprecated. Use the normal hash table API
131 ** Deprecate scm_struct_table
133 `SCM_STRUCT_TABLE_NAME', `SCM_SET_STRUCT_TABLE_NAME',
134 `SCM_STRUCT_TABLE_CLASS', `SCM_SET_STRUCT_TABLE_CLASS',
135 `scm_struct_table', and `scm_struct_create_handle' are now deprecated.
136 These routines formed part of the internals of the map between structs
139 ** Deprecate scm_internal_dynamic_wind
141 The `scm_t_inner' type and `scm_internal_dynamic_wind' are deprecated,
142 as the `scm_dynwind' API is better, and this API encourages users to
143 stuff SCM values into pointers.
145 ** Deprecate scm_immutable_cell, scm_immutable_double_cell
147 These routines are deprecated, as the GC_STUBBORN API doesn't do
152 Andreas Rottman kindly transcribed the missing parts of the `(rnrs io
153 ports)' documentation from the R6RS documentation. Thanks Andreas!
157 ** Fix double-loading of script in -ds case
158 ** -x error message fix
159 ** iconveh-related cross-compilation fixes
160 ** Fix small integer return value packing on big endian machines.
161 ** Fix hash-set! in weak-value table from non-immediate to immediate
162 ** Fix call-with-input-file & relatives for multiple values
163 ** Fix `hash' for inf and nan
164 ** Fix libguile internal type errors caught by typing-strictness==2
165 ** Fix compile error in mingw fstat socket detection
166 ** Fix multithreaded access to internal hash tables
167 ** Emit a 1-based line number in error messages
168 ** Fix define-module ordering
169 ** Fix several POSIX functions to use the locale encoding
172 Changes in 2.0.1 (since 2.0.0):
176 ** guile.m4 supports linking with rpath
178 The GUILE_FLAGS macro now sets GUILE_LIBS and GUILE_LTLIBS, which
179 include appropriate directives to the linker to include libguile-2.0.so
180 in the runtime library lookup path.
182 ** `begin' expands macros in its body before other expressions
184 This enables support for programs like the following:
189 (or (= x 0) (odd? (- x 1)))))
192 ((odd? x) (not (even? x)))))
195 ** REPL reader usability enhancements
197 The REPL now flushes input after a read error, which should prevent one
198 error from causing other errors. The REPL also now interprets comments
201 ** REPL output has configurable width
203 The REPL now defaults to output with the current terminal's width, in
204 columns. See "Debug Commands" in the manual for more information on
207 ** Better C access to the module system
209 Guile now has convenient C accessors to look up variables or values in
210 modules and their public interfaces. See `scm_c_public_ref' and friends
211 in "Accessing Modules from C" in the manual.
213 ** Added `scm_call_5', `scm_call_6'
215 See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
217 ** Added `scm_from_latin1_keyword', `scm_from_utf8_keyword'
219 See "Keyword Procedures" in the manual, for more. Note that
220 `scm_from_locale_keyword' should not be used when the name is a C string
223 ** R6RS unicode and string I/O work
225 Added efficient implementations of `get-string-n' and `get-string-n!'
226 for binary ports. Exported `current-input-port', `current-output-port'
227 and `current-error-port' from `(rnrs io ports)', and enhanced support
230 ** Added `pointer->scm', `scm->pointer' to `(system foreign)'
232 These procedure are useful if one needs to pass and receive SCM values
233 to and from foreign functions. See "Foreign Variables" in the manual,
236 ** Added `heap-allocated-since-gc' to `(gc-stats)'
238 Also fixed the long-standing bug in the REPL `,stat' command.
240 ** Add `on-error' REPL option
242 This option controls what happens when an error occurs at the REPL, and
243 defaults to `debug', indicating that Guile should enter the debugger.
244 Other values include `report', which will simply print a backtrace
245 without entering the debugger. See "System Commands" in the manual.
247 ** Enforce immutability of string literals
249 Attempting to mutate a string literal now causes a runtime error.
251 ** Fix pthread redirection
253 Guile 2.0.0 shipped with headers that, if configured with pthread
254 support, would re-define `pthread_create', `pthread_join', and other API
255 to redirect to the BDW-GC wrappers, `GC_pthread_create', etc. This was
256 unintended, and not necessary: because threads must enter Guile with
257 `scm_with_guile', Guile can handle thread registration itself, without
258 needing to make the GC aware of all threads. This oversight has been
261 ** `with-continuation-barrier' now unwinds on `quit'
263 A throw to `quit' in a continuation barrier will cause Guile to exit.
264 Before, it would do so before unwinding to the barrier, which would
265 prevent cleanup handlers from running. This has been fixed so that it
266 exits only after unwinding.
268 ** `string->pointer' and `pointer->string' have optional encoding arg
270 This allows users of the FFI to more easily deal in strings with
271 particular (non-locale) encodings, like "utf-8". See "Void Pointers and
272 Byte Access" in the manual, for more.
274 ** R6RS fixnum arithmetic optimizations
276 R6RS fixnum operations are are still slower than generic arithmetic,
279 ** New procedure: `define-inlinable'
281 See "Inlinable Procedures" in the manual, for more.
283 ** New procedure: `exact-integer-sqrt'
285 See "Integer Operations" in the manual, for more.
287 ** "Extended read syntax" for symbols parses better
289 In #{foo}# symbols, backslashes are now treated as escapes, as the
290 symbol-printing code intended. Additionally, "\x" within #{foo}# is now
291 interpreted as starting an R6RS hex escape. This is backward compatible
292 because the symbol printer would never produce a "\x" before. The
293 printer also works better too.
295 ** Added `--fresh-auto-compile' option
297 This allows a user to invalidate the auto-compilation cache. It's
298 usually not needed. See "Compilation" in the manual, for a discussion.
302 ** GOOPS documentation updates
306 Thanks to Mark Harig for improvements to guile.1.
308 ** SRFI-23 documented
310 The humble `error' SRFI now has an entry in the manual.
314 ** `(ice-9 binary-ports)': "R6RS I/O Ports", in the manual
315 ** `(ice-9 eval-string)': "Fly Evaluation", in the manual
316 ** `(ice-9 command-line)', not documented yet
320 ** Fixed `iconv_t' memory leak on close-port
321 ** Fixed some leaks with weak hash tables
322 ** Export `vhash-delq' and `vhash-delv' from `(ice-9 vlist)'
323 ** `after-gc-hook' works again
324 ** `define-record-type' now allowed in nested contexts
325 ** `exact-integer-sqrt' now handles large integers correctly
326 ** Fixed C extension examples in manual
327 ** `vhash-delete' honors HASH argument
328 ** Make `locale-digit-grouping' more robust
329 ** Default exception printer robustness fixes
330 ** Fix presence of non-I CPPFLAGS in `guile-2.0.pc'
331 ** `read' updates line/column numbers when reading SCSH block comments
332 ** Fix imports of multiple custom interfaces of same module
333 ** Fix encoding scanning for non-seekable ports
334 ** Fix `setter' when called with a non-setter generic
335 ** Fix f32 and f64 bytevectors to not accept rationals
336 ** Fix description of the R6RS `finite?' in manual
337 ** Quotient, remainder and modulo accept inexact integers again
338 ** Fix `continue' within `while' to take zero arguments
339 ** Fix alignment for structures in FFI
340 ** Fix port-filename of stdin, stdout, stderr to match the docs
341 ** Fix weak hash table-related bug in `define-wrapped-pointer-type'
342 ** Fix partial continuation application with pending procedure calls
343 ** scm_{to,from}_locale_string use current locale, not current ports
344 ** Fix thread cleanup, by using a pthread_key destructor
345 ** Fix `quit' at the REPL
346 ** Fix a failure to sync regs in vm bytevector ops
347 ** Fix (texinfo reflection) to handle nested structures like syntax patterns
348 ** Fix stexi->html double translation
349 ** Fix tree-il->scheme fix for <prompt>
350 ** Fix compilation of <prompt> in <fix> in single-value context
351 ** Fix race condition in ensure-writable-dir
352 ** Fix error message on ,disassemble "non-procedure"
353 ** Fix prompt and abort with the boot evaluator
354 ** Fix `procedure->pointer' for functions returning `void'
355 ** Fix error reporting in dynamic-pointer
356 ** Fix problems detecting coding: in block comments
357 ** Fix duplicate load-path and load-compiled-path in compilation environment
358 ** Add fallback read(2) suppport for .go files if mmap(2) unavailable
359 ** Fix c32vector-set!, c64vector-set!
360 ** Fix mistakenly deprecated read syntax for uniform complex vectors
361 ** Fix parsing of exact numbers with negative exponents
362 ** Ignore SIGPIPE in (system repl server)
363 ** Fix optional second arg to R6RS log function
364 ** Fix R6RS `assert' to return true value.
365 ** Fix fencepost error when seeking in bytevector input ports
366 ** Gracefully handle `setlocale' errors when starting the REPL
367 ** Improve support of the `--disable-posix' configure option
368 ** Make sure R6RS binary ports pass `binary-port?' regardless of the locale
369 ** Gracefully handle unterminated UTF-8 sequences instead of hitting an `assert'
373 Changes in 2.0.0 (changes since the 1.8.x series):
375 * New modules (see the manual for details)
377 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
378 ** `(srfi srfi-27)', sources of random bits
379 ** `(srfi srfi-38)', External Representation for Data With Shared Structure
380 ** `(srfi srfi-42)', eager comprehensions
381 ** `(srfi srfi-45)', primitives for expressing iterative lazy algorithms
382 ** `(srfi srfi-67)', compare procedures
383 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
384 ** `(ice-9 futures)', fine-grain parallelism
385 ** `(rnrs bytevectors)', the R6RS bytevector API
386 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
387 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
388 ** `(ice-9 vlist)', lists with constant-time random access; hash lists
389 ** `(system foreign)', foreign function interface
390 ** `(sxml match)', a pattern matcher for SXML
391 ** `(srfi srfi-9 gnu)', extensions to the SRFI-9 record library
392 ** `(system vm coverage)', a line-by-line code coverage library
393 ** `(web uri)', URI data type, parser, and unparser
394 ** `(web http)', HTTP header parsers and unparsers
395 ** `(web request)', HTTP request data type, reader, and writer
396 ** `(web response)', HTTP response data type, reader, and writer
397 ** `(web server)', Generic HTTP server
398 ** `(ice-9 poll)', a poll wrapper
399 ** `(web server http)', HTTP-over-TCP web server implementation
401 ** Replaced `(ice-9 match)' with Alex Shinn's compatible, hygienic matcher.
403 Guile's copy of Andrew K. Wright's `match' library has been replaced by
404 a compatible hygienic implementation by Alex Shinn. It is now
405 documented, see "Pattern Matching" in the manual.
407 Compared to Andrew K. Wright's `match', the new `match' lacks
408 `match-define', `match:error-control', `match:set-error-control',
409 `match:error', `match:set-error', and all structure-related procedures.
411 ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
413 The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
414 toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
415 "Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
417 ** Integration of lalr-scm, a parser generator
419 Guile has included Dominique Boucher's fine `lalr-scm' parser generator
420 as `(system base lalr)'. See "LALR(1) Parsing" in the manual, for more
423 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
425 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
427 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
428 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
430 ** Evaluating Scheme code does not use the C stack.
432 Besides when compiling Guile itself, Guile no longer uses a recursive C
433 function as an evaluator. This obviates the need to check the C stack
434 pointer for overflow. Continuations still capture the C stack, however.
436 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
437 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
439 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
440 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
441 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
444 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
446 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. See
447 "Using Guile Interactively" in the manual, for more information.
449 ** Remove old Emacs interface
451 Guile had an unused `--emacs' command line argument that was supposed to
452 help when running Guile inside Emacs. This option has been removed, and
453 the helper functions `named-module-use!' and `load-emacs-interface' have
456 ** Add `(system repl server)' module and `--listen' command-line argument
458 The `(system repl server)' module exposes procedures to listen on
459 sockets for connections, and serve REPLs to those clients. The --listen
460 command-line argument allows any Guile program to thus be remotely
463 See "Invoking Guile" for more information on `--listen'.
465 ** Command line additions
467 The guile binary now supports a new switch "-x", which can be used to
468 extend the list of filename extensions tried when loading files
471 ** New reader options: `square-brackets', `r6rs-hex-escapes',
474 The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
475 `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
476 parentheses. This option is on by default.
478 When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
479 will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS. R6RS string
480 escape sequences are incompatible with Guile's existing escapes, though,
481 so this option is off by default.
483 Additionally, Guile follows the R6RS newline escaping rules when the
484 `hungry-eol-escapes' option is enabled.
486 See "String Syntax" in the manual, for more information.
488 ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
490 The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
491 profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
492 time. See `,help profile' for more information.
494 Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
495 during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
497 ** Recursive debugging REPL on error
499 When Guile sees an error at the REPL, instead of saving the stack, Guile
500 will directly enter a recursive REPL in the dynamic context of the
501 error. See "Error Handling" in the manual, for more information.
503 A recursive REPL is the same as any other REPL, except that it
504 has been augmented with debugging information, so that one can inspect
505 the context of the error. The debugger has been integrated with the REPL
506 via a set of debugging meta-commands.
508 For example, one may access a backtrace with `,backtrace' (or
509 `,bt'). See "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for more
512 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
514 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
517 ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
519 Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
520 `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
521 include `/path/to/lib'.
523 ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
525 Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
528 ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
530 When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
531 version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
532 allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
533 installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
536 ** Value history in the REPL on by default
538 By default, the REPL will save computed values in variables like `$1',
539 `$2', and the like. There are programmatic and interactive interfaces to
540 control this. See "Value History" in the manual, for more information.
542 ** Readline tab completion for arguments
544 When readline is enabled, tab completion works for arguments too, not
545 just for the operator position.
547 ** Expression-oriented readline history
549 Guile's readline history now tries to operate on expressions instead of
550 input lines. Let us know what you think!
552 ** Interactive Guile follows GNU conventions
554 As recommended by the GPL, Guile now shows a brief copyright and
555 warranty disclaimer on startup, along with pointers to more information.
557 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
559 ** Support for R6RS libraries
561 The `library' and `import' forms from the latest Scheme report have been
562 added to Guile, in such a way that R6RS libraries share a namespace with
563 Guile modules. R6RS modules may import Guile modules, and are available
564 for Guile modules to import via use-modules and all the rest. See "R6RS
565 Libraries" in the manual for more information.
567 ** Implementations of R6RS libraries
569 Guile now has implementations for all of the libraries defined in the
570 R6RS. Thanks to Julian Graham for this excellent hack. See "R6RS
571 Standard Libraries" in the manual for a full list of libraries.
573 ** Partial R6RS compatibility
575 Guile now has enough support for R6RS to run a reasonably large subset
578 Guile is not fully R6RS compatible. Many incompatibilities are simply
579 bugs, though some parts of Guile will remain R6RS-incompatible for the
580 foreseeable future. See "R6RS Incompatibilities" in the manual, for more
583 Please contact bug-guile@gnu.org if you have found an issue not
584 mentioned in that compatibility list.
586 ** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
588 Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
589 still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
590 compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
591 primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
593 This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
594 to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
595 providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
596 code, and simplifying debugging.
598 As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
599 representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
601 There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
602 takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
603 information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
604 both of these situations.
606 There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
607 public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
608 we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
609 contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
611 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
613 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
614 not apply to the compiler.
616 ** No more `local-eval'
618 `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
619 lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
620 environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
621 and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
624 If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
625 own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
628 ** Scheme source files will now be compiled automatically.
630 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
631 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
632 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
634 Note that this mechanism depends on the timestamp of the .go file being
635 newer than that of the .scm file; if the .scm or .go files are moved
636 after installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
639 Auto-compiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
640 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
641 will be created if needed.
643 To inhibit automatic compilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
644 variable to 0, or pass --no-auto-compile on the Guile command line.
646 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
648 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
649 in the next prerelease.
651 ** New POSIX procedure: `getsid'
653 Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
655 ** New POSIX procedure: `getaddrinfo'
657 Scheme binding for the `getaddrinfo' C library function.
659 ** Multicast socket options
661 Support was added for the IP_MULTICAST_TTL and IP_MULTICAST_IF socket
662 options. See "Network Sockets and Communication" in the manual, for
665 ** `recv!', `recvfrom!', `send', `sendto' now deal in bytevectors
667 These socket procedures now take bytevectors as arguments, instead of
668 strings. There is some deprecated string support, however.
670 ** New GNU procedures: `setaffinity' and `getaffinity'.
672 See "Processes" in the manual, for more information.
674 ** New procedures: `compose', `negate', and `const'
676 See "Higher-Order Functions" in the manual, for more information.
678 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
680 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
681 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
682 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments'
684 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
685 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
686 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
687 procedures' docstrings for more information.
689 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
690 combining arity and formals. For example:
692 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
693 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
695 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
698 ** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
700 These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are
701 no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you
702 probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will
703 probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway).
705 ** New language: ECMAScript
707 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
708 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
709 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
710 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
712 ** New language: Brainfuck
714 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
715 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
716 languages. See the manual for details, or
717 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
718 Brainfuck language itself.
720 ** New language: Elisp
722 Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can
723 now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel
724 Kraft and Brian Templeton, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
726 ** Better documentation infrastructure for macros
728 It is now possible to introspect on the type of a macro, e.g.
729 syntax-rules, identifier-syntax, etc, and extract information about that
730 macro, such as the syntax-rules patterns or the defmacro arguments.
731 `(texinfo reflection)' takes advantage of this to give better macro
734 ** Support for arbitrary procedure metadata
736 Building on its support for docstrings, Guile now supports multiple
737 docstrings, adding them to the tail of a compiled procedure's
738 properties. For example:
744 (procedure-properties foo)
745 => ((name . foo) (documentation . "one") (documentation . "two"))
747 Also, vectors of pairs are now treated as additional metadata entries:
750 #((quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
752 (procedure-properties bar)
753 => ((name . bar) (quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
755 This allows arbitrary literals to be embedded as metadata in a compiled
758 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
761 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
763 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
764 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
767 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
768 (define (helper x) ...)
770 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
772 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
775 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
776 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
778 ** Support for version information in Guile's `module' form
780 Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. See "R6RS Version
781 References", "General Information about Modules", "Using Guile Modules",
782 and "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual for more information.
784 ** Support for renaming bindings on module export
786 Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
787 export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
788 should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
789 for more information.
791 ** New procedure: `module-export-all!'
793 This procedure exports all current and future bindings from a module.
794 Use as `(module-export-all! (current-module))'.
796 ** New procedure `reload-module', and `,reload' REPL command
798 See "Module System Reflection" and "Module Commands" in the manual, for
801 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
803 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. See "Eval When"
804 in the manual, for more information.
806 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
809 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
810 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
812 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
814 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
816 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
818 It is possible to circumvent this restriction with e.g.
819 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. Contact the list if you
822 ** Support for `letrec*'
824 Guile now supports `letrec*', a recursive lexical binding operator in
825 which the identifiers are bound in order. See "Local Bindings" in the
826 manual, for more details.
828 ** Internal definitions now expand to `letrec*'
830 Following the R6RS, internal definitions now expand to letrec* instead
831 of letrec. The following program is invalid for R5RS, but valid for
836 (define baz (+ bar 20))
839 ;; R5RS and Guile <= 1.8:
840 (foo) => Unbound variable: bar
841 ;; R6RS and Guile >= 2.0:
844 This change should not affect correct R5RS programs, or programs written
845 in earlier Guile dialects.
847 ** Macro expansion produces structures instead of s-expressions
849 In the olden days, macroexpanding an s-expression would yield another
850 s-expression. Though the lexical variables were renamed, expansions of
851 core forms like `if' and `begin' were still non-hygienic, as they relied
852 on the toplevel definitions of `if' et al being the conventional ones.
854 The solution is to expand to structures instead of s-expressions. There
855 is an `if' structure, a `begin' structure, a `toplevel-ref' structure,
856 etc. The expander already did this for compilation, producing Tree-IL
857 directly; it has been changed now to do so when expanding for the
860 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
862 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
863 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
866 (define (helper x) ...)
867 (define-macro (foo bar)
870 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
873 (define (helper x) ...)
874 (define-macro (foo bar)
875 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
877 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
881 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
883 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
885 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
892 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
893 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
896 ** Support for settable identifier syntax
898 Following the R6RS, "variable transformers" are settable
899 identifier-syntax. See "Identifier macros" in the manual, for more
902 ** syntax-case treats `_' as a placeholder
904 Following R6RS, a `_' in a syntax-rules or syntax-case pattern matches
905 anything, and binds no pattern variables. Unlike the R6RS, Guile also
906 permits `_' to be in the literals list for a pattern.
908 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
910 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
914 (define-macro (ref x) x)
917 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
918 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
919 macros before code that uses them.
921 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
924 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
926 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
927 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
928 (double-literal 2) => 4
930 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
931 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
932 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
934 (eval-when (load compile eval)
935 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
936 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
937 (double-literal 2) => 4
939 See the documentation for eval-when for more information.
941 ** `macroexpand' produces structures, not S-expressions.
943 Given the need to maintain referential transparency, both lexically and
944 modular, the result of expanding Scheme expressions is no longer itself
945 an s-expression. If you want a human-readable approximation of the
946 result of `macroexpand', call `tree-il->scheme' from `(language
949 ** Removed function: `macroexpand-1'
951 It is unclear how to implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though
952 PLT Scheme does prove that it is possible.
954 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
956 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
957 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
958 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
960 ** Incompatible change to #'
962 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
963 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
964 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
965 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
967 ** `unquote' and `unquote-splicing' accept multiple expressions
969 As per the R6RS, these syntax operators can now accept any number of
970 expressions to unquote.
972 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
974 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
977 ** Prompts: Delimited, composable continuations
979 Guile now has prompts as part of its primitive language. See "Prompts"
980 in the manual, for more information.
982 Expressions entered in at the REPL, or from the command line, are
983 surrounded by a prompt with the default prompt tag.
985 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
986 works (with compiled procedures)
988 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
989 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
990 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
991 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
993 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
994 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
995 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
996 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
997 number of stack frames.
999 ** Backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
1000 active in the current continuation
1002 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
1003 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
1004 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
1005 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
1007 ** `positions' reader option enabled by default
1009 This change allows primitive-load without --auto-compile to also
1010 propagate source information through the expander, for better errors and
1011 to let macros know their source locations. The compiler was already
1012 turning it on anyway.
1014 ** New macro: `current-source-location'
1016 The macro returns the current source location (to be documented).
1018 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
1019 through to the expanded code
1021 This should result in better backtraces.
1023 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
1025 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
1027 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
1029 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
1030 default. Use the `(ice-9 curried-definitions)' module to get back the
1033 ** New procedure, `define!'
1035 `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
1036 and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
1037 programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
1038 less verbose than `module-define!'.
1040 ** All modules have names now
1042 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
1043 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
1044 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
1045 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
1047 ** The module namespace is now separate from the value namespace
1049 It was a little-known implementation detail of Guile's module system
1050 that it was built on a single hierarchical namespace of values -- that
1051 if there was a module named `(foo bar)', then in the module named
1052 `(foo)' there was a binding from `bar' to the `(foo bar)' module.
1054 This was a neat trick, but presented a number of problems. One problem
1055 was that the bindings in a module were not apparent from the module
1056 itself; perhaps the `(foo)' module had a private binding for `bar', and
1057 then an external contributor defined `(foo bar)'. In the end there can
1058 be only one binding, so one of the two will see the wrong thing, and
1059 produce an obtuse error of unclear provenance.
1061 Also, the public interface of a module was also bound in the value
1062 namespace, as `%module-public-interface'. This was a hack from the early
1063 days of Guile's modules.
1065 Both of these warts have been fixed by the addition of fields in the
1066 `module' data type. Access to modules and their interfaces from the
1067 value namespace has been deprecated, and all accessors use the new
1068 record accessors appropriately.
1070 When Guile is built with support for deprecated code, as is the default,
1071 the value namespace is still searched for modules and public interfaces,
1072 and a deprecation warning is raised as appropriate.
1074 Finally, to support lazy loading of modules as one used to be able to do
1075 with module binder procedures, Guile now has submodule binders, called
1076 if a given submodule is not found. See boot-9.scm for more information.
1078 ** New procedures: module-ref-submodule, module-define-submodule,
1079 nested-ref-module, nested-define-module!, local-ref-module,
1082 These new accessors are like their bare variants, but operate on
1083 namespaces instead of values.
1085 ** The (app modules) module tree is officially deprecated
1087 It used to be that one could access a module named `(foo bar)' via
1088 `(nested-ref the-root-module '(app modules foo bar))'. The `(app
1089 modules)' bit was a never-used and never-documented abstraction, and has
1090 been deprecated. See the following mail for a full discussion:
1092 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2010-04/msg00168.html
1094 The `%app' binding is also deprecated.
1096 ** `module-filename' field and accessor
1098 Modules now record the file in which they are defined. This field may be
1099 accessed with the new `module-filename' procedure.
1101 ** Modules load within a known environment
1103 It takes a few procedure calls to define a module, and those procedure
1104 calls need to be in scope. Now we ensure that the current module when
1105 loading a module is one that has the needed bindings, instead of relying
1108 ** `load' is a macro (!) that resolves paths relative to source file dir
1110 The familiar Schem `load' procedure is now a macro that captures the
1111 name of the source file being expanded, and dispatches to the new
1112 `load-in-vicinity'. Referencing `load' by bare name returns a closure
1113 that embeds the current source file name.
1115 This fix allows `load' of relative paths to be resolved with respect to
1116 the location of the file that calls `load'.
1118 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
1120 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
1121 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
1122 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
1124 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
1125 values to the expected number
1127 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
1128 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
1129 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
1131 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
1132 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
1133 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
1134 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
1136 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
1137 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
1138 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
1140 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
1143 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
1145 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
1147 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
1148 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
1149 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
1150 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
1151 the interpreter would proceed.
1153 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
1154 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
1155 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
1156 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
1158 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
1160 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
1161 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
1162 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
1163 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
1164 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
1165 you to contact the Guile developers.
1167 ** Hygienic macros documented as the primary syntactic extension mechanism.
1169 The macro documentation was finally fleshed out with some documentation
1170 on `syntax-rules' and `syntax-case' macros, and other parts of the macro
1171 expansion process. See "Macros" in the manual, for details.
1173 ** psyntax is now the default expander
1175 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
1176 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
1179 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
1180 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
1181 code in question was memoized.
1183 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
1184 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
1185 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
1186 `x432' instead of `x'.
1188 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
1189 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
1190 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
1191 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
1193 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
1195 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
1196 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
1197 `macroexpand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
1200 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
1201 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
1202 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
1203 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
1205 ** Tail patterns in syntax-case
1207 Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
1208 syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
1209 are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
1210 match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
1213 (syntax-rules (else)
1214 ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
1217 Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
1218 tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
1219 patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
1221 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
1222 by nonhygienic macros.
1224 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
1225 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
1228 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
1229 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
1230 (define-macro (ref x)
1232 (bind-x 10 (ref x)))
1237 (define-syntax bind-x
1239 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
1240 (define-macro (ref x)
1242 (bind-x 10 (ref x)))
1244 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
1245 if you have defmacros that expand to hygienic macros, it is possible to
1246 run into situations like this. For example, if you have a defmacro that
1247 generates a `while' expression, the `break' bound by the `while' may not
1248 be visible within other parts of your defmacro. The solution is to port
1249 from defmacros to syntax-rules or syntax-case.
1251 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
1253 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
1254 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
1256 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
1257 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
1260 ** Macros may now have docstrings.
1262 `object-documentation' from `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to
1263 retrieve the docstring, once you have a macro value -- but see the above
1264 note about first-class macros. Docstrings are associated with the syntax
1265 transformer procedures.
1267 ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
1269 The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
1270 `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
1271 to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
1273 ** Procedures may now have more than one arity.
1275 This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
1276 arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
1277 `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
1278 Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
1280 ** Deprecate arity access via (procedure-properties proc 'arity)
1282 Instead of accessing a procedure's arity as a property, use the new
1283 `procedure-minimum-arity' function, which gives the most permissive
1284 arity that the the function has, in the same format as the old arity
1287 ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
1289 As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
1290 compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
1291 Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
1292 without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
1294 ** New syntax: define-once
1296 `define-once' is like Lisp's `defvar': it creates a toplevel binding,
1297 but only if one does not exist already.
1299 ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
1301 `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
1302 will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
1303 output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
1306 There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
1307 print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
1308 documentation for more details.
1310 ** Better pretty-printing
1312 Indentation recognizes more special forms, like `syntax-case', and read
1313 macros like `quote' are printed better.
1315 ** Passing a number as the destination of `format' is deprecated
1317 The `format' procedure in `(ice-9 format)' now emits a deprecation
1318 warning if a number is passed as its first argument.
1320 Also, it used to be that you could omit passing a port to `format', in
1321 some cases. This still works, but has been formally deprecated.
1323 ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
1325 Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
1326 have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
1327 or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
1328 else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
1329 APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
1330 addressed by element and not by byte.
1332 So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
1333 numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
1334 endianness, as one would expect.
1336 Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
1337 also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
1338 were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
1339 u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
1342 In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
1343 input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
1345 Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
1346 inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
1348 See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
1350 ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
1352 Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
1353 are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
1354 `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
1356 Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
1357 import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
1359 See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
1361 ** New syntax: include-from-path.
1363 `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
1364 the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
1366 ** New syntax: quasisyntax.
1368 `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
1369 documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
1372 ** `*unspecified*' is identifier syntax
1374 `*unspecified*' is no longer a variable, so it is optimized properly by
1375 the compiler, and is not `set!'-able.
1377 ** Changes and bugfixes in numerics code
1379 *** Added six new sets of fast quotient and remainder operators
1381 Added six new sets of fast quotient and remainder operator pairs with
1382 different semantics than the R5RS operators. They support not only
1383 integers, but all reals, including exact rationals and inexact
1384 floating point numbers.
1386 These procedures accept two real numbers N and D, where the divisor D
1387 must be non-zero. Each set of operators computes an integer quotient
1388 Q and a real remainder R such that N = Q*D + R and |R| < |D|. They
1389 differ only in how N/D is rounded to produce Q.
1391 `euclidean-quotient' returns the integer Q and `euclidean-remainder'
1392 returns the real R such that N = Q*D + R and 0 <= R < |D|. `euclidean/'
1393 returns both Q and R, and is more efficient than computing each
1394 separately. Note that when D > 0, `euclidean-quotient' returns
1395 floor(N/D), and when D < 0 it returns ceiling(N/D).
1397 `centered-quotient', `centered-remainder', and `centered/' are similar
1398 except that the range of remainders is -abs(D/2) <= R < abs(D/2), and
1399 `centered-quotient' rounds N/D to the nearest integer. Note that these
1400 operators are equivalent to the R6RS integer division operators `div',
1401 `mod', `div-and-mod', `div0', `mod0', and `div0-and-mod0'.
1403 `floor-quotient' and `floor-remainder' compute Q and R, respectively,
1404 where Q has been rounded toward negative infinity. `floor/' returns
1405 both Q and R, and is more efficient than computing each separately.
1406 Note that when applied to integers, `floor-remainder' is equivalent to
1407 the R5RS integer-only `modulo' operator. `ceiling-quotient',
1408 `ceiling-remainder', and `ceiling/' are similar except that Q is
1409 rounded toward positive infinity.
1411 For `truncate-quotient', `truncate-remainder', and `truncate/', Q is
1412 rounded toward zero. Note that when applied to integers,
1413 `truncate-quotient' and `truncate-remainder' are equivalent to the
1414 R5RS integer-only operators `quotient' and `remainder'.
1416 For `round-quotient', `round-remainder', and `round/', Q is rounded to
1417 the nearest integer, with ties going to the nearest even integer.
1419 *** Complex number changes
1421 Guile is now able to represent non-real complex numbers whose
1422 imaginary part is an _inexact_ zero (0.0 or -0.0), per R6RS.
1423 Previously, such numbers were immediately changed into inexact reals.
1425 (real? 0.0+0.0i) now returns #f, per R6RS, although (zero? 0.0+0.0i)
1426 still returns #t, per R6RS. (= 0 0.0+0.0i) and (= 0.0 0.0+0.0i) are
1427 #t, but the same comparisons using `eqv?' or `equal?' are #f.
1429 Like other non-real numbers, these complex numbers with inexact zero
1430 imaginary part will raise exceptions is passed to procedures requiring
1431 reals, such as `<', `>', `<=', `>=', `min', `max', `positive?',
1432 `negative?', `inf?', `nan?', `finite?', etc.
1434 **** `make-rectangular' changes
1436 scm_make_rectangular `make-rectangular' now returns a real number only
1437 if the imaginary part is an _exact_ 0. Previously, it would return a
1438 real number if the imaginary part was an inexact zero.
1440 scm_c_make_rectangular now always returns a non-real complex number,
1441 even if the imaginary part is zero. Previously, it would return a
1442 real number if the imaginary part was zero.
1444 **** `make-polar' changes
1446 scm_make_polar `make-polar' now returns a real number only if the
1447 angle or magnitude is an _exact_ 0. If the magnitude is an exact 0,
1448 it now returns an exact 0. Previously, it would return a real
1449 number if the imaginary part was an inexact zero.
1451 scm_c_make_polar now always returns a non-real complex number, even if
1452 the imaginary part is 0.0. Previously, it would return a real number
1453 if the imaginary part was 0.0.
1455 **** `imag-part' changes
1457 scm_imag_part `imag-part' now returns an exact 0 if applied to an
1458 inexact real number. Previously it returned an inexact zero in this
1461 *** `eqv?' and `equal?' now compare numbers equivalently
1463 scm_equal_p `equal?' now behaves equivalently to scm_eqv_p `eqv?' for
1464 numeric values, per R5RS. Previously, equal? worked differently,
1465 e.g. `(equal? 0.0 -0.0)' returned #t but `(eqv? 0.0 -0.0)' returned #f,
1466 and `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' returned #f but `(eqv? +nan.0 +nan.0)'
1469 *** `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' now returns #t
1471 Previously, `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' returned #f, although
1472 `(let ((x +nan.0)) (equal? x x))' and `(eqv? +nan.0 +nan.0)'
1473 both returned #t. R5RS requires that `equal?' behave like
1474 `eqv?' when comparing numbers.
1476 *** Change in handling products `*' involving exact 0
1478 scm_product `*' now handles exact 0 differently. A product containing
1479 an exact 0 now returns an exact 0 if and only if the other arguments
1480 are all exact. An inexact zero is returned if and only if the other
1481 arguments are all finite but not all exact. If an infinite or NaN
1482 value is present, a NaN value is returned. Previously, any product
1483 containing an exact 0 yielded an exact 0, regardless of the other
1486 *** `expt' and `integer-expt' changes when the base is 0
1488 While `(expt 0 0)' is still 1, and `(expt 0 N)' for N > 0 is still
1489 zero, `(expt 0 N)' for N < 0 is now a NaN value, and likewise for
1490 integer-expt. This is more correct, and conforming to R6RS, but seems
1491 to be incompatible with R5RS, which would return 0 for all non-zero
1494 *** `expt' and `integer-expt' are more generic, less strict
1496 When raising to an exact non-negative integer exponent, `expt' and
1497 `integer-expt' are now able to exponentiate any object that can be
1498 multiplied using `*'. They can also raise an object to an exact
1499 negative integer power if its reciprocal can be taken using `/'.
1500 In order to allow this, the type of the first argument is no longer
1501 checked when raising to an exact integer power. If the exponent is 0
1502 or 1, the first parameter is not manipulated at all, and need not
1503 even support multiplication.
1505 *** Infinities are no longer integers, nor rationals
1507 scm_integer_p `integer?' and scm_rational_p `rational?' now return #f
1508 for infinities, per R6RS. Previously they returned #t for real
1509 infinities. The real infinities and NaNs are still considered real by
1510 scm_real `real?' however, per R6RS.
1512 *** NaNs are no longer rationals
1514 scm_rational_p `rational?' now returns #f for NaN values, per R6RS.
1515 Previously it returned #t for real NaN values. They are still
1516 considered real by scm_real `real?' however, per R6RS.
1518 *** `inf?' and `nan?' now throw exceptions for non-reals
1520 The domain of `inf?' and `nan?' is the real numbers. Guile now signals
1521 an error when a non-real number or non-number is passed to these
1522 procedures. (Note that NaNs _are_ considered numbers by scheme, despite
1525 *** `rationalize' bugfixes and changes
1527 Fixed bugs in scm_rationalize `rationalize'. Previously, it returned
1528 exact integers unmodified, although that was incorrect if the epsilon
1529 was at least 1 or inexact, e.g. (rationalize 4 1) should return 3 per
1530 R5RS and R6RS, but previously it returned 4. It also now handles
1531 cases involving infinities and NaNs properly, per R6RS.
1533 *** Trigonometric functions now return exact numbers in some cases
1535 scm_sin `sin', scm_cos `cos', scm_tan `tan', scm_asin `asin', scm_acos
1536 `acos', scm_atan `atan', scm_sinh `sinh', scm_cosh `cosh', scm_tanh
1537 `tanh', scm_sys_asinh `asinh', scm_sys_acosh `acosh', and
1538 scm_sys_atanh `atanh' now return exact results in some cases.
1540 *** New procedure: `finite?'
1542 Add scm_finite_p `finite?' from R6RS to guile core, which returns #t
1543 if and only if its argument is neither infinite nor a NaN. Note that
1544 this is not the same as (not (inf? x)) or (not (infinite? x)), since
1545 NaNs are neither finite nor infinite.
1547 *** Improved exactness handling for complex number parsing
1549 When parsing non-real complex numbers, exactness specifiers are now
1550 applied to each component, as is done in PLT Scheme. For complex
1551 numbers written in rectangular form, exactness specifiers are applied
1552 to the real and imaginary parts before calling scm_make_rectangular.
1553 For complex numbers written in polar form, exactness specifiers are
1554 applied to the magnitude and angle before calling scm_make_polar.
1556 Previously, exactness specifiers were applied to the number as a whole
1557 _after_ calling scm_make_rectangular or scm_make_polar.
1559 For example, (string->number "#i5.0+0i") now does the equivalent of:
1561 (make-rectangular (exact->inexact 5.0) (exact->inexact 0))
1563 which yields 5.0+0.0i. Previously it did the equivalent of:
1565 (exact->inexact (make-rectangular 5.0 0))
1569 ** Unicode characters
1571 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
1572 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
1573 probably be introduced at some point.
1577 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
1578 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
1579 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
1581 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
1582 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
1583 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
1584 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
1588 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
1590 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
1592 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
1593 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
1594 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
1595 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
1596 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
1599 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
1600 code. This use is now discouraged. Binary input and output is
1601 currently supported by opening ports in the ISO-8859-1 locale.
1603 ** Source files default to UTF-8.
1605 If source files do not specify their encoding via a `coding:' block,
1606 the default encoding is UTF-8, instead of being taken from the current
1609 ** Interactive Guile installs the current locale.
1611 Instead of leaving the user in the "C" locale, running the Guile REPL
1612 installs the current locale. [FIXME xref?]
1614 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
1616 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
1617 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
1618 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
1621 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
1622 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
1623 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
1625 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
1627 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
1629 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
1630 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
1631 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
1632 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
1634 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
1636 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
1637 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
1638 Unicode code points.
1640 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
1642 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
1643 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
1644 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
1647 ** EBCDIC support is removed
1649 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
1650 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
1651 and was unmaintained.
1653 ** Compile-time warnings
1655 Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
1656 -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
1657 `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
1658 invocation. Warnings are also enabled by default for expressions entered
1661 Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
1662 procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
1663 `#:warnings' as above.
1665 Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to
1666 warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables, and `-Wformat',
1667 to check for various errors related to the `format' procedure.
1669 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
1671 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
1674 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
1676 This slightly improves program startup times.
1678 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
1680 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
1682 ** New threads are in `(guile-user)' by default, not `(guile)'
1684 It used to be that a new thread entering Guile would do so in the
1685 `(guile)' module, unless this was the first time Guile was initialized,
1686 in which case it was `(guile-user)'. This has been fixed to have all
1687 new threads unknown to Guile default to `(guile-user)'.
1689 ** New helpers: `print-exception', `set-exception-printer!'
1691 These functions implement an extensible exception printer. Guile
1692 registers printers for all of the exceptions it throws. Users may add
1693 their own printers. There is also `scm_print_exception', for use by C
1694 programs. Pleasantly, this allows SRFI-35 and R6RS exceptions to be
1695 printed appropriately.
1697 ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
1699 As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
1700 special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
1701 associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
1702 underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
1704 This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
1705 dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
1706 implement method combinations.
1708 ** Applicable struct support
1710 One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
1711 To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
1712 That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
1713 that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
1714 `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
1715 `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
1716 `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
1717 the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
1721 GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
1722 but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
1723 never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
1724 were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
1725 replaced by applicable structs, mentioned above.
1727 ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
1729 A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
1730 call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
1731 instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
1732 vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
1734 ** eqv? not a generic
1736 One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
1737 more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
1738 should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
1739 sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
1741 ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
1743 Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
1744 there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
1745 functions are deprecated.
1747 ** `getopt-long' parsing errors throw to `quit', not `misc-error'
1749 This change should inhibit backtraces on argument parsing errors.
1750 `getopt-long' has been modified to print out the error that it throws
1753 ** New primitive: `tmpfile'.
1755 See "File System" in the manual.
1757 ** Random generator state may be serialized to a datum
1759 `random-state->datum' will serialize a random state to a datum, which
1760 may be written out, read back in later, and revivified using
1761 `datum->random-state'. See "Random" in the manual, for more details.
1763 ** Fix random number generator on 64-bit platforms
1765 There was a nasty bug on 64-bit platforms in which asking for a random
1766 integer with a range between 2**32 and 2**64 caused a segfault. After
1767 many embarrassing iterations, this was fixed.
1769 ** Fast bit operations.
1771 The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
1772 have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
1773 it's for number crunching too.
1775 ** Faster SRFI-9 record access
1777 SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
1778 and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
1779 inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
1780 (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
1782 ** R6RS block comment support
1784 Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
1785 marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
1787 ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
1789 To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
1790 test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
1792 (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
1793 ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
1794 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1796 ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
1797 ;; separate compilation phase.
1798 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1800 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
1802 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
1804 ** New fluid: `%file-port-name-canonicalization'
1806 This fluid parameterizes the file names that are associated with file
1807 ports. If %file-port-name-canonicalization is 'absolute, then file names
1808 are canonicalized to be absolute paths. If it is 'relative, then the
1809 name is canonicalized, but any prefix corresponding to a member of
1810 `%load-path' is stripped off. Otherwise the names are passed through
1813 In addition, the `compile-file' and `compile-and-load' procedures bind
1814 %file-port-name-canonicalization to their `#:canonicalization' keyword
1815 argument, which defaults to 'relative. In this way, one might compile
1816 "../module/ice-9/boot-9.scm", but the path that gets residualized into
1817 the .go is "ice-9/boot-9.scm".
1819 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
1821 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
1823 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
1825 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
1827 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
1829 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
1831 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
1832 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
1833 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
1835 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
1837 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
1838 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
1840 ** New readline history functions
1842 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
1843 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
1844 History library functions.
1846 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
1847 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
1849 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
1852 ** Deprecate the old `scm-style-repl'
1854 The following bindings from boot-9 are now found in `(ice-9
1855 scm-style-repl)': `scm-style-repl', `error-catching-loop',
1856 `error-catching-repl', `bad-throw', `scm-repl-silent'
1857 `assert-repl-silence', `repl-print-unspecified',
1858 `assert-repl-print-unspecified', `scm-repl-verbose',
1859 `assert-repl-verbosity', `scm-repl-prompt', `set-repl-prompt!', `repl',
1860 `default-pre-unwind-handler', `handle-system-error',
1862 The following bindings have been deprecated, with no replacement:
1863 `pre-unwind-handler-dispatch'.
1865 The following bindings have been totally removed:
1866 `before-signal-stack'.
1868 Deprecated forwarding shims have been installed so that users that
1869 expect these bindings in the main namespace will still work, but receive
1870 a deprecation warning.
1872 ** `set-batch-mode?!' replaced by `ensure-batch-mode!'
1874 "Batch mode" is a flag used to tell a program that it is not running
1875 interactively. One usually turns it on after a fork. It may not be
1876 turned off. `ensure-batch-mode!' deprecates the old `set-batch-mode?!',
1877 because it is a better interface, as it can only turn on batch mode, not
1880 ** Deprecate `save-stack', `the-last-stack'
1882 It used to be that the way to debug programs in Guile was to capture the
1883 stack at the time of error, drop back to the REPL, then debug that
1884 stack. But this approach didn't compose, was tricky to get right in the
1885 presence of threads, and was not very powerful.
1887 So `save-stack', `stack-saved?', and `the-last-stack' have been moved to
1888 `(ice-9 save-stack)', with deprecated bindings left in the root module.
1890 ** `top-repl' has its own module
1892 The `top-repl' binding, called with Guile is run interactively, is now
1893 is its own module, `(ice-9 top-repl)'. A deprecated forwarding shim was
1894 left in the default environment.
1896 ** `display-error' takes a frame
1898 The `display-error' / `scm_display_error' helper now takes a frame as an
1899 argument instead of a stack. Stacks are still supported in deprecated
1900 builds. Additionally, `display-error' will again source location
1901 information for the error.
1903 ** No more `(ice-9 debug)'
1905 This module had some debugging helpers that are no longer applicable to
1906 the current debugging model. Importing this module will produce a
1907 deprecation warning. Users should contact bug-guile for support.
1909 ** Remove obsolete debug-options
1911 Removed `breakpoints', `trace', `procnames', `indent', `frames',
1912 `maxdepth', and `debug' debug-options.
1914 ** `backtrace' debug option on by default
1916 Given that Guile 2.0 can always give you a backtrace, backtraces are now
1919 ** `turn-on-debugging' deprecated
1921 ** Remove obsolete print-options
1923 The `source' and `closure-hook' print options are obsolete, and have
1926 ** Remove obsolete read-options
1928 The "elisp-strings" and "elisp-vectors" read options were unused and
1929 obsolete, so they have been removed.
1931 ** Remove eval-options and trap-options
1933 Eval-options and trap-options are obsolete with the new VM and
1936 ** Remove (ice-9 debugger) and (ice-9 debugging)
1938 See "Traps" and "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for information
1939 on their replacements.
1941 ** Remove the GDS Emacs integration
1943 See "Using Guile in Emacs" in the manual, for info on how we think you
1944 should use Guile with Emacs.
1946 ** Deprecated: `lazy-catch'
1948 `lazy-catch' was a form that captured the stack at the point of a
1949 `throw', but the dynamic state at the point of the `catch'. It was a bit
1950 crazy. Please change to use `catch', possibly with a throw-handler, or
1951 `with-throw-handler'.
1953 ** Deprecated: primitive properties
1955 The `primitive-make-property', `primitive-property-set!',
1956 `primitive-property-ref', and `primitive-property-del!' procedures were
1957 crufty and only used to implement object properties, which has a new,
1958 threadsafe implementation. Use object properties or weak hash tables
1961 ** Deprecated `@bind' syntax
1963 `@bind' was part of an older implementation of the Emacs Lisp language,
1964 and is no longer used.
1966 ** Miscellaneous other deprecations
1968 `cuserid' has been deprecated, as it only returns 8 bytes of a user's
1969 login. Use `(passwd:name (getpwuid (geteuid)))' instead.
1971 Additionally, the procedures `apply-to-args', `has-suffix?', `scheme-file-suffix'
1972 `get-option', `for-next-option', `display-usage-report',
1973 `transform-usage-lambda', `collect', and `set-batch-mode?!' have all
1976 ** Add support for unbound fluids
1978 See `make-unbound-fluid', `fluid-unset!', and `fluid-bound?' in the
1981 ** Add `variable-unset!'
1983 See "Variables" in the manual, for more details.
1985 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
1987 * Changes to the C interface
1989 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
1991 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
1992 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
1993 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
1995 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
1996 code easier and less error-prone.
1998 ** New procedures: `scm_to_stringn', `scm_from_stringn'
1999 ** New procedures: scm_{to,from}_{utf8,latin1}_symbol{n,}
2000 ** New procedures: scm_{to,from}_{utf8,utf32,latin1}_string{n,}
2002 These new procedures convert to and from string representations in
2003 particular encodings.
2005 Users should continue to use locale encoding for user input, user
2006 output, or interacting with the C library.
2008 Use the Latin-1 functions for ASCII, and for literals in source code.
2010 Use UTF-8 functions for interaction with modern libraries which deal in
2011 UTF-8, and UTF-32 for interaction with utf32-using libraries.
2013 Otherwise, use scm_to_stringn or scm_from_stringn with a specific
2016 ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.
2018 `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
2019 `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
2020 available to C. Have fun!
2022 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
2024 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
2026 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
2029 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
2030 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
2032 ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
2034 From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
2035 odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
2036 SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
2039 ** Remove old evaluator closures
2041 There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
2042 structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
2043 procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
2044 newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
2047 ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
2049 It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
2050 allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
2051 Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
2052 defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
2053 solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
2054 both with the old 1.8 and and with the current 1.9 branch.
2056 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
2057 primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
2058 rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
2059 procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
2060 arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
2061 special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
2063 This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
2064 them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
2065 debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
2066 example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
2067 mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
2069 However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
2070 `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
2071 they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
2072 `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
2073 `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
2074 `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
2076 Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
2077 `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
2078 `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
2079 and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
2082 Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
2083 scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
2086 ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
2088 Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
2089 `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
2090 `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
2091 `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
2092 `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
2094 ** Remove unused snarf macros
2096 `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
2097 are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
2099 ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
2101 `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
2102 `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
2104 ** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
2106 Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
2107 they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
2109 ** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
2111 If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
2112 that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
2113 the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
2114 in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
2115 correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
2118 ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
2120 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
2121 objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
2122 trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
2123 trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
2126 The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
2127 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
2128 `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
2129 deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
2131 ** Removed support shlibs for SRFIs 1, 4, 13, 14, and 60
2133 Though these SRFI support libraries did expose API, they encoded a
2134 strange version string into their library names. That version was never
2135 programmatically exported, so there was no way people could use the
2138 This was a fortunate oversight, as it allows us to remove the need for
2139 extra, needless shared libraries --- the C support code for SRFIs 4, 13,
2140 and 14 was already in core --- and allow us to incrementally return the
2141 SRFI implementation to Scheme.
2143 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
2145 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
2147 ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
2149 It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
2152 ** Inline vector allocation
2154 Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
2155 data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
2156 true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
2157 available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
2160 ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
2162 `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
2163 constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
2167 In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is
2168 no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has
2169 a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API
2170 considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is
2171 in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly.
2173 ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
2175 There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
2176 minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
2177 obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
2178 `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
2179 from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
2180 were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
2184 Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
2185 shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
2186 part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
2187 better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
2189 ** Deprecate trampolines
2191 There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
2192 so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
2193 procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
2194 optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
2195 Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
2197 ** Deprecated `scm_badargsp'
2199 This function is unused in Guile, but was part of its API.
2201 ** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
2203 The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
2204 efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
2205 Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
2206 like scm_is_null_or_nil.
2208 ** Better integration of Lisp `nil'.
2210 `scm_is_boolean', `scm_is_false', and `scm_is_null' all return true now
2211 for Lisp's `nil'. This shouldn't affect any Scheme code at this point,
2212 but when we start to integrate more with Emacs, it is possible that we
2213 break code that assumes that, for example, `(not x)' implies that `x' is
2214 `eq?' to `#f'. This is not a common assumption. Refactoring affected
2215 code to rely on properties instead of identities will improve code
2216 correctness. See "Nil" in the manual, for more details.
2218 ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
2220 Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
2221 much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
2224 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
2225 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
2227 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
2229 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
2230 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
2232 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
2234 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
2235 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
2236 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
2237 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
2239 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
2241 * Changes to the distribution
2243 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
2245 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
2246 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
2251 Guile's build is visually quieter, due to the use of Automake 1.11's
2252 AM_SILENT_RULES. Build as `make V=1' to see all of the output.
2254 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
2256 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
2257 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
2259 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
2261 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
2262 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
2263 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
2266 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
2268 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
2269 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
2271 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
2273 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
2274 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
2276 ** Parallel installability fixes
2278 Guile now installs its header files to a effective-version-specific
2279 directory, and includes the effective version (e.g. 2.0) in the library
2280 name (e.g. libguile-2.0.so).
2282 This change should be transparent to users, who should detect Guile via
2283 the guile.m4 macro, or the guile-2.0.pc pkg-config file. It will allow
2284 parallel installs for multiple versions of Guile development
2287 ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
2289 Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
2290 (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
2291 be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
2292 directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensiondir
2293 guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
2295 ** User Scheme code may be placed in a version-specific path
2297 Before, there was only one way to install user Scheme code to a
2298 version-specific Guile directory: install to Guile's own path,
2299 e.g. /usr/share/guile/2.0. The site directory,
2300 e.g. /usr/share/guile/site, was unversioned. This has been changed to
2301 add a version-specific site directory, e.g. /usr/share/guile/site/2.0,
2302 searched before the global site directory.
2304 ** New dependency: libgc
2306 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
2308 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
2310 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
2311 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
2313 ** New dependency: libffi
2315 See http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information.
2319 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
2323 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
2324 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
2325 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
2328 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
2330 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2332 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
2336 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
2337 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
2338 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
2339 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
2340 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
2341 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
2342 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
2343 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
2344 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
2345 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
2346 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
2348 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
2350 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
2351 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
2352 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
2355 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
2358 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
2360 * New features (see the manual for details)
2362 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
2364 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
2366 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
2367 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
2368 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
2370 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
2372 * Changes to the distribution
2374 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
2376 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
2377 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
2379 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
2381 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
2382 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
2387 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
2388 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
2389 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
2390 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
2391 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
2392 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
2393 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
2394 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
2395 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
2396 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
2397 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
2398 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
2399 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
2400 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
2402 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
2403 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
2404 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
2405 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
2406 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
2409 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
2411 * Infrastructure changes
2413 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
2415 The new repository can be accessed using
2416 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
2417 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
2419 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
2421 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
2423 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2427 * New features (see the manual for details)
2429 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
2430 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
2431 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
2433 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
2434 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
2435 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
2436 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
2438 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
2440 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
2441 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
2442 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
2446 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
2447 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
2449 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
2450 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
2452 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
2453 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
2455 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
2456 lead to a stack overflow.
2458 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
2459 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
2460 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
2461 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
2462 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
2463 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
2464 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
2465 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
2466 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
2467 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
2468 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
2469 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
2470 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
2471 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
2472 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
2473 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
2476 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
2480 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
2481 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
2482 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
2483 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
2484 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
2485 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
2486 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
2487 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
2488 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
2489 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
2490 system and library calls.
2491 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
2492 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
2493 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
2494 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
2495 uniform vectors on AIX.
2496 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
2497 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
2498 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
2499 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
2500 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
2502 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2506 * Documentation fixes and improvements
2508 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
2510 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
2511 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
2513 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
2515 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
2517 * Changes to the distribution
2519 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
2521 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
2522 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
2523 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
2525 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
2527 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
2530 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
2532 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2539 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
2540 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
2541 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
2542 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
2543 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
2544 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
2545 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
2547 * Implementation improvements
2549 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
2550 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
2553 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
2555 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
2557 ** set-program-arguments
2560 * Incompatible changes
2562 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
2564 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
2565 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
2566 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
2567 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
2572 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
2573 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
2574 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
2575 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
2576 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
2577 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
2579 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
2580 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
2581 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
2582 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
2583 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
2584 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
2585 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
2586 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
2587 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
2588 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
2589 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
2590 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
2591 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
2592 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
2593 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
2594 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
2597 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
2599 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
2601 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
2603 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
2604 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
2605 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
2606 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
2607 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
2608 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
2616 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
2618 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
2620 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
2622 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
2624 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
2626 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
2628 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
2629 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
2630 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
2632 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
2634 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
2636 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
2637 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
2639 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
2641 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
2642 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
2644 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
2646 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
2648 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
2650 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
2652 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
2654 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
2656 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
2658 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
2660 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
2662 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
2663 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
2664 file was on a different device.
2667 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
2669 * Changes to the distribution
2671 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
2673 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
2675 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
2677 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
2679 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
2681 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
2684 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
2686 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
2687 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
2688 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
2689 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
2690 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
2691 items like the versioned share directory name
2692 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
2694 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
2695 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
2696 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
2697 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
2698 with each micro release during a stable series.
2700 ** Thread implementation has changed.
2702 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
2703 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
2704 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
2705 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
2706 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
2709 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
2710 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
2711 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
2712 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
2715 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
2716 in which case "null" threads are used.
2718 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
2719 "Blocking", and others.
2721 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
2723 This is a milder form of deprecation.
2725 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
2726 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
2727 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
2728 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
2729 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
2731 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
2732 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
2734 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
2736 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
2737 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
2739 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
2742 This SRFI is always available.
2744 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
2746 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
2747 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
2748 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
2749 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
2752 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
2754 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
2755 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
2756 parameters without currying.
2758 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
2760 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
2761 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
2763 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
2764 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
2767 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
2768 with a renaming import, for example.
2770 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
2772 The official version is good enough now.
2774 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
2776 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
2777 provided. Use 'make html'.
2779 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
2781 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
2782 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
2783 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
2784 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
2786 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
2788 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
2791 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2793 ** New command line option `-L'.
2795 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
2797 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
2799 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
2800 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
2802 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
2804 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
2805 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
2807 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
2809 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
2810 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
2813 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
2816 (define-module (demo)
2820 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
2823 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2825 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
2827 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
2828 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
2829 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
2831 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
2833 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
2834 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
2836 ** New function hashx-remove!
2838 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
2840 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
2841 barriers and dynamic states.
2843 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
2844 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
2845 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
2848 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
2849 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
2850 Barriers" in the manual.
2852 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
2853 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
2855 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
2857 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
2858 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
2859 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
2860 variable %load-path.
2862 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
2864 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
2865 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
2867 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
2868 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
2869 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
2871 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
2872 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
2874 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
2875 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
2876 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
2878 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
2879 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
2880 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
2883 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
2884 substrings and read-only strings.
2886 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
2887 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
2890 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
2892 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
2901 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
2902 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
2903 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
2905 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
2906 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
2907 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
2908 on an ANSI terminal:
2910 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
2911 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
2914 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
2916 See the manual for details.
2918 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
2920 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
2923 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
2925 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
2926 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
2927 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
2928 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
2930 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
2931 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
2932 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
2935 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
2937 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
2938 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
2949 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
2953 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
2958 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
2962 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
2966 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
2969 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
2970 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
2971 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
2972 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
2974 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
2975 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
2978 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
2981 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
2985 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
2987 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
2988 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
2989 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
2992 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
2995 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
2997 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
3000 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
3001 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
3004 (define-module (foo)
3009 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
3010 has been detected is to
3012 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
3013 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
3014 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
3017 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
3020 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
3022 to your .guile init file.
3024 ** New define-module option: :replace
3026 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
3029 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
3030 for the core binding `format'.
3032 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
3034 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
3035 a prefix to all imported bindings.
3037 (define-module (foo)
3038 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
3040 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
3043 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
3045 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
3046 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
3047 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
3049 ** New function: effective-version
3051 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
3052 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
3053 to the distribution" above.
3055 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
3057 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
3058 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
3060 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
3062 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
3063 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
3065 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
3067 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
3068 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
3071 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
3073 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
3075 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
3077 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
3078 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
3079 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
3082 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
3083 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
3084 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
3085 'system-async-mark'.
3087 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
3088 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
3090 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
3091 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
3092 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
3095 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
3097 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
3098 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
3101 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
3102 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
3104 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
3105 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
3106 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
3107 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
3108 level for the current thread.
3110 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
3112 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
3114 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
3115 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
3118 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
3120 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
3122 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
3125 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
3127 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
3130 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
3131 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
3132 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
3134 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
3135 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
3136 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
3137 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
3148 ERROR: Numerical overflow
3150 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
3153 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
3155 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
3156 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
3157 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
3168 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
3170 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
3171 them is also done exactly, of course:
3176 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
3177 for exact arguments.
3179 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
3180 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
3182 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
3184 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
3185 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
3186 equal to a floating point number. For example:
3188 (inexact->exact 1.234)
3189 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
3191 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
3193 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
3196 ** New function 'rationalize'.
3198 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
3199 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
3201 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
3204 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
3205 result when both its arguments are exact.
3207 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
3209 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
3210 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
3211 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
3213 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
3215 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
3216 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
3217 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
3219 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
3222 ** pretty-print has more options.
3224 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
3225 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
3226 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
3228 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
3230 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
3231 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
3232 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
3234 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
3236 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
3237 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
3239 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
3241 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
3242 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
3245 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
3247 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
3248 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
3249 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
3250 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
3251 without the soft port blocking.
3253 ** Deprecated: undefine
3255 There is no replacement for undefine.
3257 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
3258 have been discouraged.
3260 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
3261 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
3262 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
3265 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
3267 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
3269 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
3270 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
3271 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
3272 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
3275 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
3276 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
3277 be removed in the next major Guile release.
3279 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
3281 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
3282 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
3283 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
3284 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
3285 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
3286 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
3288 * Changes to the C interface
3290 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
3291 take a 'delete' function argument.
3293 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
3294 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
3296 This is an incompatible change.
3298 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
3300 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
3301 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
3302 --disable-deprecated.
3304 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
3306 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
3307 Scheme values has been added.
3309 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
3310 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
3313 - int scm_is_* (...)
3315 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
3316 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
3318 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
3320 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
3321 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
3324 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
3326 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
3327 scm_from_int for ints.
3329 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
3330 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
3331 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
3333 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
3335 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
3336 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
3337 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
3340 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
3342 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
3344 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
3346 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
3347 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
3348 following alternatives.
3350 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
3351 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
3352 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
3353 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
3355 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
3356 do the validating for you.
3358 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
3359 have been discouraged.
3361 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
3362 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
3365 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
3367 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
3368 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
3371 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
3373 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
3376 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
3379 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
3381 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
3382 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
3384 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
3385 scm_truncate_number should have.
3387 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
3388 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
3390 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
3393 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
3394 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
3395 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
3397 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
3398 easier to use from C.
3400 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
3401 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
3403 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
3404 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
3405 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
3408 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
3409 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
3410 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
3411 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
3414 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
3415 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
3416 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
3417 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
3418 and is thus quite efficient.
3420 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
3422 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
3423 about the character encoding.
3425 Replace according to the following table:
3427 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
3428 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
3429 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
3430 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
3431 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
3432 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
3433 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
3434 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
3435 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
3437 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
3438 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
3440 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
3442 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
3443 now also available to C code.
3445 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
3447 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
3448 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
3449 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
3451 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
3454 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
3456 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
3457 unceremoniously removed.
3459 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
3460 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
3461 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
3463 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
3464 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
3465 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
3466 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
3467 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
3468 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
3471 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
3473 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
3474 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
3475 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
3476 manual for more details.
3478 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
3479 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
3481 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
3482 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
3483 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
3485 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
3487 Migrate according to the following table:
3489 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
3490 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
3491 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
3492 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
3493 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
3494 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
3495 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
3497 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
3498 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
3499 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
3500 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
3501 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
3502 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
3503 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
3505 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
3507 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
3508 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
3510 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
3511 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
3512 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
3513 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
3515 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
3517 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
3518 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
3519 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
3521 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
3522 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
3524 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
3525 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
3526 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
3527 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
3529 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
3531 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
3532 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
3533 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
3534 prevent a potential memory leak:
3541 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
3543 mem = scm_malloc (100);
3544 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
3546 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
3547 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
3554 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
3555 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
3559 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
3561 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
3563 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
3564 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
3565 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
3567 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
3568 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
3570 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
3572 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
3574 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
3575 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
3576 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
3578 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
3579 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
3581 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
3582 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
3583 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
3584 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
3587 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
3589 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
3590 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
3591 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
3593 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
3595 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
3596 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
3598 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
3600 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
3601 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
3603 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
3605 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
3606 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
3607 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
3609 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
3611 You should not have used them.
3613 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
3615 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
3616 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
3618 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
3620 This macro is not intended for public use.
3622 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
3624 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
3626 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
3628 Use scm_is_real instead.
3630 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
3632 Use scm_is_complex instead.
3634 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
3636 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
3637 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
3639 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
3640 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
3642 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
3643 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
3645 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
3647 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
3650 ** New function: scm_effective_version
3652 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
3653 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
3654 to the distribution" above.
3656 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
3658 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
3659 arguments are now passed directly:
3661 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
3663 This is an incompatible change.
3665 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
3667 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
3668 function in the init section.
3670 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
3672 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
3674 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
3675 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
3676 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
3677 stays roughly constant.
3679 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
3680 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
3681 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
3682 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
3683 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
3686 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
3687 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
3688 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
3689 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
3691 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
3692 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
3693 objects for every type.
3696 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
3698 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
3700 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
3702 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
3703 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
3704 initializes a new cell (see below).
3706 ** New functions for memory management
3708 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
3709 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
3710 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
3711 cause aborts in long running programs.
3713 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
3714 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
3716 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
3717 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
3718 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
3719 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
3720 details and for upgrading instructions.
3722 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
3723 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
3724 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
3726 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
3728 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
3729 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
3730 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
3731 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
3732 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
3734 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
3735 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
3736 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
3738 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
3739 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
3741 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
3743 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
3744 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
3745 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
3746 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
3747 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
3749 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
3751 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
3754 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
3756 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
3758 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
3760 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
3761 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
3763 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
3765 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
3766 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
3768 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
3769 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
3771 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
3773 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
3775 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
3776 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
3777 blocking it is not well defined.
3779 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
3781 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
3782 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
3783 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
3784 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
3785 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
3786 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
3787 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
3788 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
3789 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
3790 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
3791 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3792 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
3793 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
3794 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
3795 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
3796 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
3797 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
3798 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3799 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
3800 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
3801 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
3802 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
3803 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
3804 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
3805 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
3806 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
3807 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
3808 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
3809 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
3810 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
3811 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
3813 * Changes to bundled modules
3817 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
3818 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
3819 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
3820 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
3821 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
3824 Changes since Guile 1.4:
3826 * Changes to the distribution
3828 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
3830 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
3832 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
3833 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
3834 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
3835 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
3836 indicate major changes in Guile.
3838 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
3839 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
3840 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
3841 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
3843 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
3844 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
3845 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
3846 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
3847 micro version number.
3849 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
3851 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
3853 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
3854 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
3856 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
3858 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
3859 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
3860 See INSTALL and README for more information.
3862 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
3864 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
3865 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
3866 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
3869 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
3871 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
3874 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
3876 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
3877 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
3879 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
3881 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
3882 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
3885 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
3887 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
3890 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
3893 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
3895 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
3897 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
3898 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
3899 open-output-string, get-output-string.
3901 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
3903 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
3905 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
3908 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
3910 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
3912 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
3914 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
3915 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
3916 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
3918 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
3920 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
3922 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
3923 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
3932 See README there for more info.
3934 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
3935 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
3938 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
3940 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
3942 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
3944 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
3945 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
3946 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
3948 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
3950 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
3951 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
3952 to be named `and-let*', of course.
3954 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
3955 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
3957 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
3960 (oop goops describe)
3962 (oop goops active-slot)
3963 (oop goops composite-slot)
3965 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
3966 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
3967 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
3969 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
3971 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
3972 in the default environment:
3974 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
3975 %read-line write-line
3977 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
3978 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
3980 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
3982 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
3985 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
3986 can be used for similar functionality.
3988 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
3990 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
3991 it defines two procedures:
3993 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3995 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
3996 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3997 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
4000 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
4002 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
4003 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
4004 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
4005 write large strings.
4007 ** New module (ice-9 match)
4009 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
4010 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
4012 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
4014 for complete documentation.
4016 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
4018 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
4019 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
4020 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
4021 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
4023 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
4024 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
4028 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
4029 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
4030 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
4033 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
4036 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
4037 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
4039 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
4040 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
4043 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
4046 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
4048 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
4050 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4052 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
4054 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
4055 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
4056 Scheme programs easier.
4058 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
4059 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
4060 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
4061 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
4062 `cond-expand' when using this option.
4065 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
4066 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
4068 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
4071 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
4073 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
4074 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
4075 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
4078 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4080 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
4082 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
4083 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
4084 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
4085 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
4086 was also ASCII, for example.
4088 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
4090 tag - no replacement.
4091 fseek - replaced by seek.
4092 list* - replaced by cons*.
4094 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
4098 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
4099 (define m (make-safe-module))
4100 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
4101 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
4102 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
4104 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
4106 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
4107 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
4108 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
4110 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
4112 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
4113 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
4114 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
4115 from the issues related to the module system.
4117 *** New function: load-extension
4119 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
4121 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
4123 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
4124 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
4125 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
4127 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
4129 This function registers a initialization function for use by
4130 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
4131 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
4132 support dynamic linking).
4134 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
4136 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
4137 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
4138 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
4139 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
4142 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
4143 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
4144 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
4145 library and initialize it explicitly.
4147 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
4148 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
4150 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
4152 (define-module (foo bar))
4154 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
4156 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
4158 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
4159 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
4161 (scheme-report-environment 5)
4162 (null-environment 5)
4163 (interaction-environment)
4169 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
4171 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
4172 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
4173 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
4174 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
4176 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
4177 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
4178 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
4179 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
4180 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
4181 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
4182 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
4183 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
4184 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
4185 one eval to the next.
4187 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
4188 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
4189 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
4190 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
4191 subforms are at the top-level as well.
4193 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
4194 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
4195 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
4196 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
4197 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
4198 used in a lexical environment.
4200 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
4201 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
4202 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
4203 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
4204 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
4205 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
4207 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
4209 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
4210 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
4211 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
4212 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
4213 new facilities: selection and renaming.
4215 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
4216 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
4217 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
4219 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
4220 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
4222 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
4223 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
4224 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
4226 (remove-if . zonk-y)
4227 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
4229 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
4230 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
4231 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
4232 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
4235 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
4236 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
4237 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
4238 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
4240 (remove-if . zonk-y)
4241 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
4242 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
4244 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
4245 ;; and all four by upcasing.
4246 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
4247 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
4248 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
4250 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
4252 (remove-if . zonk-y)
4253 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
4254 :renamer upcase-symbol))
4256 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
4257 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
4258 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
4260 See manual for more info.
4262 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
4264 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
4265 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
4266 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
4268 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
4270 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
4271 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
4272 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
4274 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
4275 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
4276 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
4277 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
4279 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
4281 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
4282 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
4284 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
4285 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
4286 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
4287 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
4288 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
4291 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
4292 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
4293 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
4294 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
4295 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
4296 successful and #f if it wasn't.
4298 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
4299 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
4300 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
4301 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
4302 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
4304 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
4305 objects are usually permanent.
4307 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
4308 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
4310 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
4312 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
4313 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
4316 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
4320 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
4325 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
4327 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
4328 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
4329 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
4330 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
4332 ** New function `make-object-property'
4334 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
4335 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
4339 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
4340 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
4344 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
4345 source properties eventually.
4347 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
4349 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
4350 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
4351 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
4353 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
4354 will be removed in the next release.
4356 ** New define-module option: pure
4358 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
4363 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
4366 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
4368 Export names NAME1 ...
4370 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
4371 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
4375 (define-module (foo)
4377 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
4380 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
4385 ** New function: object->string OBJ
4387 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
4389 ** New function: port? X
4391 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
4392 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
4394 ** New function: file-port?
4396 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
4398 ** New function: port-for-each proc
4400 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
4401 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
4402 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
4403 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
4404 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
4406 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
4408 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
4409 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
4410 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
4411 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
4412 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
4415 ** New function: close-fdes fd
4417 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
4418 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
4419 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
4420 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
4423 ** New function: crypt password salt
4425 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
4428 ** New function: chroot path
4430 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
4432 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
4434 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
4437 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
4439 Get or set the priority of the running process.
4441 ** New function: getpass prompt
4443 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
4446 ** New function: flock file operation
4448 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
4450 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
4452 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
4455 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
4457 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
4458 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
4459 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
4460 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
4461 of the temporary file.
4463 ** New function: open-input-string string
4465 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
4466 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
4467 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
4469 ** New function: open-output-string
4471 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
4472 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
4474 ** New function: get-output-string
4476 Return the contents of an output string port.
4478 ** New function: identity
4480 Return the argument.
4482 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
4483 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
4485 ** New function: inet-pton family address
4487 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
4488 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
4489 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
4492 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
4493 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
4495 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
4497 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
4498 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
4499 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
4502 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
4503 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
4504 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
4508 Use `identity' instead.
4514 ** Deprecated: return-it
4518 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
4520 Use `string-length' instead.
4522 ** Deprecated: flags
4524 Use `logior' instead.
4526 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
4528 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
4529 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
4530 port-for-each is more flexible.
4532 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
4533 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
4534 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
4536 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
4538 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
4540 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
4542 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
4544 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
4546 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
4547 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
4549 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
4550 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
4552 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
4553 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
4555 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
4557 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
4558 Removed function: builtin-bindings
4560 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
4561 Use module system operations for all variables.
4563 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
4565 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
4568 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
4570 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
4571 The following bugs have been fixed:
4573 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
4574 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
4577 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
4578 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
4579 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
4581 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
4582 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
4584 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
4585 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
4588 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
4589 The expansion used to be like so:
4591 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
4593 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
4595 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
4597 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
4598 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
4600 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
4602 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
4603 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
4604 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
4608 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
4609 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
4611 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
4616 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
4617 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
4619 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
4620 and `d', other keywords allowed.
4621 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
4623 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
4626 * Changes to the C interface
4628 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
4630 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
4631 with "_t". What a concept.
4633 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
4635 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
4637 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
4641 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
4642 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
4644 *** C Functions removed
4646 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
4647 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
4648 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
4649 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
4650 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
4651 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
4652 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
4654 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
4656 Use scm_mem2string instead.
4658 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
4660 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
4662 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
4663 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
4665 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
4667 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
4670 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
4672 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
4674 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
4676 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
4677 Evaluation" in the manual.
4679 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
4681 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
4682 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
4684 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
4686 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
4687 Constructors" in the manual.
4689 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
4691 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
4692 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
4694 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
4696 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
4698 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
4699 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
4700 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
4702 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4704 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
4706 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
4707 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
4708 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
4711 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4713 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
4715 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
4716 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
4718 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
4720 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
4721 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
4722 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
4723 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
4725 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
4726 scm_primitive_property_ref
4727 scm_primitive_property_set_x
4728 scm_primitive_property_del_x
4730 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
4731 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
4733 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
4735 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
4736 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
4737 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
4738 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
4740 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
4742 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
4743 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
4744 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
4745 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
4746 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
4747 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
4748 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
4750 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
4751 scm_remember_upto_here
4753 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
4755 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
4757 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
4758 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
4760 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
4762 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
4764 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
4766 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
4768 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
4770 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
4771 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
4772 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
4773 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
4774 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
4775 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
4777 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
4779 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4781 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
4782 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4783 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
4785 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
4787 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
4788 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4789 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
4791 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
4793 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
4794 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
4797 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
4800 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
4801 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
4804 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4806 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
4808 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
4810 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4812 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
4814 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
4816 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
4817 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
4818 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
4819 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
4820 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
4821 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
4822 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
4823 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
4824 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
4825 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
4826 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
4827 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
4828 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
4829 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
4830 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
4832 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
4833 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
4834 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
4835 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
4836 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
4837 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
4838 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
4839 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
4840 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4841 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
4842 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
4843 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
4844 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
4845 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
4846 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
4847 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4848 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4849 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
4850 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
4851 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
4852 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
4853 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
4854 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
4855 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
4856 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
4857 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
4858 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
4859 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
4860 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
4862 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
4864 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
4866 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
4867 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
4869 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
4871 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
4873 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
4875 Use scm_string_hash instead.
4877 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
4879 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
4881 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
4883 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
4885 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
4888 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
4889 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
4891 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
4893 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
4895 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
4897 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
4899 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
4901 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
4903 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
4905 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
4908 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
4910 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
4912 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
4914 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
4915 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
4917 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
4918 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
4920 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
4922 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
4923 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
4924 scm_module_define, scm_define.
4926 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
4928 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
4930 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
4931 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
4933 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
4934 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
4935 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
4936 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
4938 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
4939 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
4940 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
4942 Use the new ones from above instead.
4944 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
4946 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
4947 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
4948 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
4950 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
4951 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
4953 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
4954 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
4957 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
4958 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
4960 Use the new functions instead.
4962 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
4965 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
4967 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
4969 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
4972 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
4974 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
4977 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
4979 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
4982 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
4983 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
4984 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
4986 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
4988 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
4989 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
4991 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
4992 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
4993 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
4994 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
4997 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
4999 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
5000 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
5001 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
5002 inexact for an exact.
5004 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
5005 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
5006 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
5009 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
5010 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
5011 accept an inexact argument.
5013 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
5014 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
5016 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
5019 ** New number validation macros:
5020 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
5024 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
5026 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
5027 scm_unprotect_object.
5029 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
5031 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
5033 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
5036 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
5038 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
5042 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
5044 * Changes to the distribution
5046 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
5048 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
5049 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
5050 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
5051 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
5052 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
5053 obtain these programs.
5054 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
5055 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
5057 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
5058 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
5059 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
5060 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
5061 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
5063 However, this approach means that minor differences between
5064 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
5065 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
5066 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
5070 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
5073 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
5074 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
5075 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
5076 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
5078 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
5080 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
5082 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
5083 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
5085 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
5086 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
5088 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
5089 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
5091 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
5092 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
5093 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
5094 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
5096 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
5098 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
5102 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
5103 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
5105 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
5107 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
5108 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
5110 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
5111 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
5112 number of objects of that kind.
5114 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
5116 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
5117 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
5118 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
5119 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
5120 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
5122 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
5124 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
5126 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
5128 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
5131 ** New module (ice-9 time)
5133 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
5135 ** New module (ice-9 history)
5137 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
5139 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5141 ** New command line option --debug
5143 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
5145 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
5147 ** New help facility
5149 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
5150 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
5151 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
5152 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
5153 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
5154 (help) gives this text
5156 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
5157 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
5159 Examples: (help help)
5161 (help "output-string")
5163 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
5165 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
5167 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
5168 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
5171 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
5172 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
5173 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
5176 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
5177 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
5178 use absolute filenames when possible.
5180 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
5181 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
5182 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
5185 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
5187 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
5188 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
5189 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
5190 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
5192 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
5194 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
5196 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
5197 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
5198 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
5200 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
5201 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
5202 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
5204 (read-enable 'positions)
5205 (debug-enable 'debug)
5207 ** Backtraces in scripts
5209 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
5213 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
5215 at the top of the script.
5217 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
5218 The second enables backtraces.)
5220 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
5222 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
5223 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
5224 substantially faster than before.
5226 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
5227 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
5229 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
5230 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
5232 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
5234 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
5235 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
5236 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
5238 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
5239 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
5240 when this hook is run in the future.
5242 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
5243 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
5245 ** Improvements to garbage collector
5247 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
5248 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
5251 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
5252 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
5253 more and more memory for certain programs.)
5255 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
5256 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
5258 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
5259 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
5261 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
5262 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
5263 in order not to need further allocation.)
5265 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
5268 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
5269 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
5270 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
5271 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
5273 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
5275 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
5278 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
5280 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
5283 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
5284 GC in percent of total heap size
5287 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
5288 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
5290 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
5292 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
5293 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
5295 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
5297 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
5298 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
5300 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
5302 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
5303 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
5307 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
5308 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
5310 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
5312 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5314 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
5316 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
5318 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
5320 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
5321 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
5323 (simple-format port message . args)
5324 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
5325 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
5326 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
5327 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
5328 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
5329 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
5330 Does not add a trailing newline."
5332 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
5334 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
5335 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
5337 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
5338 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
5340 ** Deprecated: list*
5342 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
5344 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
5346 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
5347 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
5349 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
5350 is returned as result.
5352 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
5354 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
5356 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
5358 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
5359 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
5362 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
5364 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
5366 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
5367 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
5369 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5371 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
5373 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
5375 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5377 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
5379 Thanks to Greg Badros!
5381 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
5383 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
5384 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
5385 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
5387 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
5390 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
5392 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
5393 the readability of argument checking.
5395 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
5397 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
5399 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
5401 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
5402 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
5403 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
5404 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
5405 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
5406 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
5407 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
5409 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
5411 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
5413 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
5414 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
5416 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
5418 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
5419 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
5422 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
5424 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
5425 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
5426 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
5428 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
5429 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
5430 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
5432 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
5433 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
5434 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
5435 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
5436 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
5437 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
5438 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
5440 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
5441 scm_end_input (object);
5442 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
5443 ptob->flush (object);
5445 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
5446 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
5449 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
5451 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
5453 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
5454 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
5455 removed in a future version.
5457 ** The format of error message strings has changed
5459 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
5460 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
5461 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
5462 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
5464 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
5465 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
5467 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
5470 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
5472 in your configure.in.
5474 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
5479 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
5485 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
5487 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
5491 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
5492 (define make-message string-append)
5494 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
5496 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
5500 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
5505 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
5509 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
5511 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
5512 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
5514 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
5516 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
5517 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
5518 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
5519 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
5520 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
5521 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
5523 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
5524 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
5525 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
5527 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
5528 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
5529 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
5532 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
5533 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
5534 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
5535 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
5536 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
5538 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
5539 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
5540 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
5541 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
5542 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
5543 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
5544 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
5546 Destructors are not yet implemented.
5548 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
5549 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
5550 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
5552 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
5553 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
5554 KEY in the calling thread.
5556 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
5557 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
5558 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
5559 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
5560 associated with the key.
5562 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
5564 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
5565 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
5567 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
5569 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
5570 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
5571 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
5573 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
5575 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
5576 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
5578 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
5580 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
5582 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
5583 returned is undefined.
5585 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
5586 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
5587 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
5589 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
5590 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
5591 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
5593 ** New C level GC hooks
5595 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
5597 scm_before_gc_c_hook
5600 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
5601 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
5602 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
5604 scm_before_mark_c_hook
5605 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
5606 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
5608 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
5609 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
5612 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
5614 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
5615 allocation parameters
5617 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
5618 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
5619 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
5623 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
5624 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
5625 scm_default_max_segment_size
5627 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
5629 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
5630 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
5632 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
5634 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
5635 object and count on the object being protected until
5636 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
5638 The functions also have better time complexity.
5640 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
5641 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
5642 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
5643 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
5644 are no longer needed.
5646 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
5648 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
5649 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
5650 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
5651 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
5653 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
5655 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
5657 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
5659 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
5660 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
5661 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
5662 until this issue has been settled.
5664 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
5666 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
5668 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
5671 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
5673 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5675 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
5676 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
5677 descriptors were checked.
5679 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
5680 atomically written to a pipe.
5682 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
5683 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
5684 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
5685 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
5686 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
5687 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
5688 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
5691 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
5692 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
5693 is changed without calling tzset.
5695 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
5697 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
5698 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
5699 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
5701 (define write-network-long
5702 (lambda (value port)
5703 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5704 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
5705 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
5707 (define read-network-long
5709 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5710 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
5711 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
5713 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
5714 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
5716 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
5717 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
5718 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
5719 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
5721 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
5722 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
5723 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
5724 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
5728 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
5730 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5734 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
5735 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
5736 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
5742 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
5743 for a description of available commands.
5745 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
5746 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
5747 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
5749 (debug-enable 'backwards)
5751 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
5752 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
5754 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
5756 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
5758 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
5759 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
5760 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
5761 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
5762 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
5763 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
5766 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
5768 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
5769 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
5770 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
5771 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
5773 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
5774 the file and should not be affected by this change.
5776 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
5778 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5780 ** Readline support has changed again.
5782 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
5783 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
5784 to activate readline is now
5786 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
5789 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
5791 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
5792 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
5793 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
5796 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
5797 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
5798 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
5801 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
5802 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
5803 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
5804 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
5805 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
5806 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
5808 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
5809 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
5811 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
5813 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
5814 object it receives is the same string passed to
5815 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
5816 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
5817 string, not the suffix.
5819 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
5820 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
5821 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
5823 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
5825 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
5826 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
5827 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
5828 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
5831 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5833 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
5835 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
5836 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
5837 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
5838 appear from left to right.
5840 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
5843 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
5845 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
5846 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
5848 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5852 *** New function: hook? OBJ
5854 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
5856 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
5858 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
5859 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
5860 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
5862 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
5864 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
5866 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
5868 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
5871 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
5873 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
5874 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
5875 mentioning it here anyway.
5877 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
5879 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
5880 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
5881 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
5882 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
5885 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
5887 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
5889 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
5891 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
5892 otherwise return #f.
5894 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
5896 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
5897 returned by `opendir'.
5899 ** New function: using-readline?
5901 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
5903 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5905 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
5906 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5908 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5910 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5912 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
5913 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
5914 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5916 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
5918 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
5919 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
5921 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
5923 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
5924 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
5925 documentation slots are not yet used.
5927 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
5929 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
5930 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
5931 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
5936 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
5937 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
5938 (string-append x y))
5940 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
5941 can also be used for concatenating strings.
5943 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
5944 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
5945 be made in a clean way.]
5947 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
5949 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5951 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5953 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
5954 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
5956 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5958 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
5960 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5962 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5964 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
5965 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
5966 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
5967 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
5970 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5972 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
5974 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5976 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5978 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
5979 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
5981 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5983 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
5985 Evaluates the body of a special form.
5987 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
5989 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
5990 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
5991 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
5992 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
5993 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
5994 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
5996 This should not make any difference for most users.
5998 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
6000 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
6001 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
6003 *** New functions for applying generic functions
6005 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
6006 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
6007 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
6008 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
6009 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
6011 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
6013 It is now replaced by:
6015 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
6017 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
6018 binds a variable named NAME to it.
6020 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
6022 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
6023 This might change when we get the new module system.
6025 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
6029 Changes since Guile 1.3:
6031 * Changes to mailing lists
6033 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
6035 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
6038 * Changes to the distribution
6040 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
6042 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
6043 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
6044 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
6045 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
6046 you explicitly specify it.
6048 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
6049 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
6050 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
6051 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
6052 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
6055 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
6056 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
6057 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
6058 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
6060 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
6061 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
6062 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
6065 You can activate the readline support by issuing
6067 (use-modules (readline-activator))
6070 from your ".guile" file, for example.
6072 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6074 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
6075 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
6076 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
6077 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
6079 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
6080 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
6083 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6085 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
6086 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
6087 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
6088 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
6089 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
6090 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
6091 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
6092 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
6104 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
6105 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
6106 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
6107 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
6108 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
6113 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
6114 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
6122 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
6127 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
6128 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
6131 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
6132 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
6133 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
6134 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
6136 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
6138 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
6140 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
6141 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
6143 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
6145 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
6147 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
6148 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
6150 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
6153 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
6155 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
6157 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
6159 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
6161 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
6163 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
6165 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
6166 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
6167 when the hook was created.
6169 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
6170 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
6171 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
6172 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
6173 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
6174 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
6175 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
6176 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
6177 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
6179 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
6180 the dlopen family of functions.
6182 ** New function `provided?'
6184 - Function: provided? FEATURE
6185 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
6186 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
6187 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
6189 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
6191 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
6192 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
6193 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
6194 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
6197 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
6198 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
6199 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
6200 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
6202 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
6203 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
6204 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
6207 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
6208 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
6209 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
6210 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
6211 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
6212 but with the flag set.
6214 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
6216 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
6217 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
6219 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
6220 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
6221 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
6222 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
6223 available Scheme format implementations.
6225 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
6226 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
6227 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
6228 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
6229 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
6230 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
6231 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
6232 output is to the current error port if available by the
6233 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
6236 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
6237 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
6238 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
6239 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
6240 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
6241 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
6242 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
6243 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
6245 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
6246 be executed at a time.
6249 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
6251 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
6252 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
6253 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
6255 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
6256 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
6257 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
6258 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
6259 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
6260 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
6261 general form of a directive is:
6263 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
6265 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
6267 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
6269 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
6270 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
6271 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
6274 Any (print as `display' does).
6278 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
6282 S-expression (print as `write' does).
6286 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
6292 print number sign always.
6295 print comma separated.
6297 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
6303 print number sign always.
6306 print comma separated.
6308 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
6314 print number sign always.
6317 print comma separated.
6319 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
6325 print number sign always.
6328 print comma separated.
6330 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
6335 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
6339 print a number as a Roman numeral.
6342 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
6345 print a number as an ordinal English number.
6348 print a number as a cardinal English number.
6353 prints `y' and `ies'.
6356 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
6359 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
6364 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
6368 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
6371 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
6372 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
6374 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6377 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
6378 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
6380 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6383 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
6385 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
6387 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6390 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
6392 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
6394 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
6397 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
6400 The sign appears before the padding.
6408 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
6410 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
6415 print N page separators.
6425 newline is ignored, white space left.
6428 newline is left, white space ignored.
6433 relative tabulation.
6439 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
6441 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
6444 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
6446 converts by `string-capitalize'.
6449 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
6452 converts by `string-upcase'.
6455 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
6457 jumps N arguments forward.
6460 jumps 1 argument backward.
6463 jumps N arguments backward.
6466 jumps to the 0th argument.
6469 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
6471 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
6472 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
6474 take argument from N.
6477 true test conditional.
6480 if-else-then conditional.
6486 default clause follows.
6489 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
6491 at most N iterations.
6494 args from next arg (a list of lists).
6497 args from the rest of arguments.
6500 args from the rest args (lists).
6511 aborts if N <= M <= K
6513 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
6516 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
6519 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
6525 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
6527 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
6529 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
6530 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
6531 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
6532 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
6533 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
6534 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
6538 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
6542 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
6548 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
6551 Print a `#\space' character
6553 print N `#\space' characters.
6556 Print a `#\tab' character
6558 print N `#\tab' characters.
6561 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
6562 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
6563 must be a positive decimal number.
6566 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
6567 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
6568 be processed by `read'.
6571 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
6572 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
6573 be processed by `read'.
6576 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
6579 prints format version.
6582 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
6583 and format it accordingly.
6585 *** Configuration Variables
6587 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
6588 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
6589 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
6590 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
6593 format:symbol-case-conv
6594 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
6595 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
6596 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
6597 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
6598 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
6600 format:iobj-case-conv
6601 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
6602 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
6605 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
6608 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
6614 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
6615 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
6616 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
6617 `format' padding style.
6620 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
6621 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
6622 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
6623 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
6627 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
6628 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
6629 directive parameters or modifiers)).
6632 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
6633 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
6634 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
6635 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
6636 parameters or modifiers)).
6639 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
6641 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
6643 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
6644 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
6646 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
6647 string-downcase! functions.
6649 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
6650 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
6652 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
6655 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
6658 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
6659 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
6661 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
6663 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
6664 the symbol had be read by `read'.
6666 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
6667 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
6668 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
6669 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
6670 would if STRING were input.
6672 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
6674 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
6675 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
6676 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
6677 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
6680 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
6682 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
6683 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
6686 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
6688 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
6689 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
6691 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
6692 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
6694 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
6695 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
6696 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
6697 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
6699 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
6700 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
6702 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
6703 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
6704 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
6706 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
6707 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
6709 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
6710 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
6711 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
6712 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
6713 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
6715 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
6716 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
6717 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
6718 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
6719 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
6720 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
6722 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
6723 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
6724 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
6727 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
6728 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
6729 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
6730 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
6731 the following grammar:
6732 ((apples (single-char #\a))
6733 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
6734 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
6735 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
6736 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
6737 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
6738 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
6739 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
6740 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
6741 last option in its combination)
6743 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
6744 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
6745 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
6746 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
6748 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
6749 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
6750 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
6752 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6753 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6754 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
6756 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
6757 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
6758 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
6759 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
6760 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
6761 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
6762 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
6763 ordinary argument strings.
6765 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
6766 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
6767 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
6768 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
6770 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
6771 as a list, associated with the empty list.
6773 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
6774 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
6775 - a required option is omitted
6776 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
6777 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
6778 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
6779 - an option predicate fails
6784 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
6787 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
6788 (verbose (required? #f)
6791 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
6792 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
6793 (predicate ,string?))))
6795 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
6796 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6798 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6799 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
6800 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
6801 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
6804 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
6806 It will be removed in a few releases.
6808 ** New syntax: lambda*
6809 ** New syntax: define*
6810 ** New syntax: define*-public
6811 ** New syntax: defmacro*
6812 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
6813 Guile now supports optional arguments.
6815 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
6816 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
6817 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
6818 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
6819 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
6821 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
6822 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
6823 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
6825 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
6827 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
6828 and examples for `lambda*':
6831 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
6833 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
6834 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
6835 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
6836 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
6837 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
6838 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
6839 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
6840 can be checked with the bound? macro.
6842 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
6844 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
6845 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
6846 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
6847 are given as keywords are bound to values.
6849 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
6850 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
6851 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
6852 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
6853 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
6854 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
6855 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
6856 and until the procedure is called.
6858 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
6860 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
6861 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
6862 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
6863 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
6864 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
6865 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
6866 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
6867 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
6868 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
6869 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
6871 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
6872 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
6873 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
6874 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
6877 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
6879 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
6880 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
6881 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
6882 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
6884 ** New syntax: and-let*
6885 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
6887 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
6888 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
6889 (<variable> <expression>)
6892 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
6893 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
6894 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
6897 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
6898 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
6899 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
6900 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
6901 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
6902 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
6903 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
6905 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
6906 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
6907 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
6908 shadow earlier bindings.
6910 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
6912 ** New sorting functions
6914 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
6915 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
6916 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
6917 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
6919 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
6920 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
6923 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6924 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
6925 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
6927 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
6928 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
6929 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
6930 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
6932 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6933 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
6934 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
6935 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
6936 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
6939 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6940 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
6941 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
6942 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
6943 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
6944 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
6946 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
6947 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
6948 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
6950 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6951 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
6952 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
6955 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
6956 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
6957 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
6959 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
6960 Added for compatibility with scsh.
6962 ** New built-in random number support
6964 *** New function: random N [STATE]
6965 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
6966 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
6967 returned have a uniform distribution.
6969 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
6970 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
6971 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
6972 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
6973 effect of the `random' operation.
6975 *** New variable: *random-state*
6976 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
6977 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
6978 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
6979 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
6980 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
6983 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
6984 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6985 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6986 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
6987 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
6989 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
6990 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6991 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6992 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
6993 initialized using SEED.
6995 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
6996 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
6997 range between 0 and 1.
6999 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
7000 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
7001 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
7002 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
7003 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
7004 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
7005 or a uniform vector of doubles.
7007 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
7008 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
7009 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
7010 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
7011 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
7012 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
7014 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
7015 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
7016 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
7017 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
7019 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
7020 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
7021 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
7022 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
7024 *** New function: random:exp STATE
7025 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
7026 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
7028 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
7030 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
7033 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
7034 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
7037 ** New function: make-guardian
7038 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
7039 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
7040 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
7041 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
7042 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
7044 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
7045 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
7046 one object if at all.
7048 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
7049 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
7050 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
7052 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
7053 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
7054 read again in last-in first-out order.
7056 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
7057 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
7059 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
7061 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
7062 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
7063 file position is used.
7065 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
7066 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
7067 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
7069 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
7070 redefined using seek.
7072 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
7073 size is not supplied.
7075 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
7076 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
7078 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
7079 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
7081 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
7083 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
7084 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
7085 and returns the contents as a single string.
7087 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
7088 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
7089 lists in serial order.
7091 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
7092 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
7093 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
7095 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
7096 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
7097 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
7098 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
7100 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
7101 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
7102 and #f if an error occured.
7104 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
7106 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
7107 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
7108 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
7109 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
7111 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
7113 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
7116 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
7118 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
7121 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7125 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
7126 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
7128 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
7129 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
7133 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7135 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
7137 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
7138 binds a variable named NAME to it.
7140 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
7142 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
7143 might change when we get the new module system.
7145 ** The smob interface
7147 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
7148 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
7150 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
7152 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
7156 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
7157 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
7158 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
7159 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
7160 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
7161 will be freed by the default free function.
7163 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
7164 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
7165 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
7166 `scm_make_smob_type'.
7168 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
7169 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
7170 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
7171 `scm_make_smob_type'.
7173 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
7175 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
7176 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
7180 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
7181 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
7182 `scm_make_smob_type'.
7184 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
7185 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
7186 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
7187 `scm_make_smob_type'.
7189 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
7190 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
7191 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
7193 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
7194 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
7195 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
7196 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
7198 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
7199 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
7200 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
7202 *** scm_newptob has been removed
7206 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
7208 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
7209 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
7210 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
7212 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
7213 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
7214 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
7216 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
7217 a string port's buffer.
7219 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
7220 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
7221 function pointers which together define the current random number
7222 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
7223 number library functions.
7225 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
7228 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
7229 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
7232 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
7233 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
7235 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
7236 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
7238 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
7239 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
7242 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
7243 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
7244 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
7245 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
7247 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
7248 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
7249 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
7250 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
7251 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
7252 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
7253 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
7255 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
7256 by libguile and the application.
7258 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
7259 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
7260 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
7261 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
7263 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
7264 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
7266 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
7267 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
7268 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
7270 ** Random number library functions
7271 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
7272 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
7273 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
7275 The default random state is stored in:
7277 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
7278 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
7279 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
7284 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
7286 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
7287 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
7288 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
7289 isn't a random state.
7291 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
7292 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
7294 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
7295 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
7296 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
7297 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
7299 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
7300 Return 32 random bits.
7302 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
7303 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
7305 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
7306 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
7308 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
7309 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
7311 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
7312 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
7314 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
7315 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
7316 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
7320 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
7322 * Changes to the distribution
7324 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
7325 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
7326 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
7329 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
7330 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
7331 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
7333 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
7334 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
7335 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
7336 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
7339 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
7340 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
7341 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
7343 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
7345 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
7347 *** Function: batch-mode?
7349 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
7352 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
7354 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
7355 case has not been implemented.
7357 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
7358 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
7359 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
7362 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
7363 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
7365 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
7367 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7369 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
7371 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
7372 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
7375 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
7376 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
7377 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
7378 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
7381 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
7383 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
7384 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
7385 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
7386 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
7387 find those libraries.
7389 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
7390 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
7393 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
7395 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
7396 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
7397 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
7398 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
7400 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
7401 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
7402 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
7406 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
7408 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
7409 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
7410 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
7413 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
7414 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
7415 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
7416 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
7418 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
7419 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
7422 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
7423 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
7424 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
7425 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
7426 compiler where to find the libraries.
7428 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
7429 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
7430 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
7432 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
7433 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
7434 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
7435 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
7436 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
7440 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7442 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
7443 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
7444 internationalization support.
7446 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
7447 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
7448 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
7449 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
7450 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
7452 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
7453 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
7454 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
7455 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
7456 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
7458 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
7459 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
7460 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
7461 any GNU mirror site.
7463 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
7465 ** New function: add-history STRING
7466 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
7467 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
7468 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
7470 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
7472 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
7473 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
7474 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
7477 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
7478 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
7479 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
7481 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
7483 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
7486 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
7487 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
7490 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
7491 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
7492 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
7493 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
7494 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
7495 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
7497 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
7498 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
7499 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
7500 of the form mentioned above.
7502 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
7503 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
7504 returned in the special `rest' list.
7506 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
7507 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
7509 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
7511 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
7513 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
7515 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
7516 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
7517 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
7518 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
7519 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
7520 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
7521 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
7522 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
7525 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
7527 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
7529 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
7530 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
7533 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
7534 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
7535 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
7539 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
7540 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
7541 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
7542 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
7543 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
7544 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
7545 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
7546 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
7549 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
7551 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
7552 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
7553 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
7555 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
7557 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
7558 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
7560 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
7561 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
7562 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
7564 Why do we have this function?
7565 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
7566 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
7567 primitive, and display it differently, and
7568 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
7569 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
7572 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
7573 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
7576 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
7577 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
7578 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
7579 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
7581 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
7582 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
7585 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
7586 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
7588 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
7590 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
7591 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
7592 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
7593 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
7594 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
7595 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
7596 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
7599 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
7601 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
7602 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
7604 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
7605 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
7606 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
7607 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
7608 properly continue the print chain.
7610 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
7611 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
7612 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
7613 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
7614 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
7615 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
7616 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
7617 print-state, it is simply ignored.
7619 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
7620 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
7621 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
7622 safest to not check for these pairs.
7624 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
7625 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
7626 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
7627 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
7629 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
7631 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
7632 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
7634 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
7636 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
7638 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
7639 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
7640 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
7642 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
7643 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
7644 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
7646 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
7647 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
7648 the following functions and macros:
7650 Function: make-fluid
7652 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
7653 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
7654 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
7655 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
7656 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
7658 Function: fluid? OBJ
7660 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
7662 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
7663 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
7665 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
7666 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
7668 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
7670 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
7671 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
7672 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
7673 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
7674 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
7675 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
7676 modified by `with-fluids*'.
7678 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
7680 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
7681 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
7682 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
7683 should evaluate to a fluid.
7685 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
7687 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
7688 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
7689 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
7690 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
7691 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
7693 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
7696 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
7698 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
7700 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
7702 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
7705 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
7706 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
7707 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
7708 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
7709 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
7712 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
7713 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
7714 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
7716 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
7717 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
7718 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
7720 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
7721 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
7722 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7723 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
7725 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
7726 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
7727 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7728 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
7730 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
7731 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
7732 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
7733 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
7735 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
7736 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
7737 their revealed counts set to zero.
7739 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7740 Returns an integer file descriptor.
7742 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7743 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
7745 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7746 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
7748 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7749 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
7750 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
7752 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
7753 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
7754 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
7756 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
7757 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
7758 default environment inherited by child processes.
7760 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
7761 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
7762 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
7764 The return value is unspecified.
7766 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
7767 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
7768 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
7769 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
7770 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
7772 The return value is unspecified.
7774 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
7775 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
7783 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
7784 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
7787 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
7790 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
7791 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
7792 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
7794 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
7795 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
7796 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
7797 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
7800 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
7801 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
7803 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
7804 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
7805 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
7806 the `environ' procedure.
7808 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
7809 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
7812 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
7813 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
7815 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
7816 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
7817 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
7818 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
7820 *** procedure: times
7821 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
7822 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
7823 return a selected component:
7826 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
7830 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
7833 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
7837 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
7838 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
7842 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
7843 terminated child processes.
7845 ** Removed: list-length
7846 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
7847 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
7849 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
7851 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
7853 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
7855 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
7856 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
7857 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
7858 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
7860 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
7861 extra complexity it introduces.
7863 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
7864 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
7866 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
7867 variable to any non-empty value.
7869 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
7870 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
7872 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7874 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
7875 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
7877 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
7879 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
7880 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
7882 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
7884 ** vector handling routines
7886 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
7887 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
7888 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
7889 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
7890 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
7892 ** pair and list routines
7894 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
7897 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
7899 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
7902 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7904 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
7906 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
7907 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
7908 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
7909 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
7910 site-specific initialization code.
7912 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
7913 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
7914 initialization processes.
7916 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
7917 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
7918 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
7919 initialized properly.
7921 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
7922 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
7923 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
7925 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
7926 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
7927 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
7928 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
7929 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
7931 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
7933 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
7934 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
7935 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
7936 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
7937 objects the smob refers to get marked.
7939 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
7940 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
7941 which look like this:
7944 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
7946 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
7947 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
7950 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
7951 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
7954 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
7956 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
7957 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
7958 you will need to change your functions slightly.
7960 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
7961 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
7962 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
7963 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
7964 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
7966 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
7967 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
7969 int (*free) (SCM port);
7970 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
7971 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
7972 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
7976 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
7977 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
7978 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
7980 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
7983 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
7984 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
7985 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
7987 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
7988 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
7989 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
7992 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
7996 struct timeval *timeout);
7998 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
7999 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
8000 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
8001 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
8002 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
8003 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
8005 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
8006 scm_catch_body_t body,
8008 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
8011 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
8012 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
8013 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
8014 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
8015 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
8016 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
8018 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
8020 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
8023 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
8024 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
8025 spawning threads from application C code.
8027 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
8028 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
8029 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
8030 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
8031 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
8032 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
8034 ** Removed functions:
8036 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
8037 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
8039 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
8041 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
8042 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
8044 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
8046 ** mbstrings are now removed
8048 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
8049 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
8051 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
8053 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
8054 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
8055 their new names and arguments:
8057 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
8058 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
8059 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
8060 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
8063 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
8065 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
8067 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
8070 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
8072 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
8073 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
8074 pass a #f arg to catch.
8076 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
8078 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
8079 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
8082 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
8083 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
8084 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
8085 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
8086 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
8087 reclaim its storage.
8089 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
8090 worrying that some other function you call will call
8091 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
8092 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
8093 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
8094 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
8097 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
8099 * Changes to the distribution
8101 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
8102 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
8105 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
8106 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
8108 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
8109 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
8111 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
8113 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
8114 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
8115 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
8117 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
8119 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
8120 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
8121 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
8122 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
8123 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
8124 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
8126 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
8127 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
8128 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
8131 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
8132 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
8133 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
8134 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
8136 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
8137 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
8138 libraries to your link command:
8140 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
8141 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
8142 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
8143 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
8145 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
8146 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
8147 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
8149 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
8151 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
8152 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
8155 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
8157 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
8158 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
8159 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
8160 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
8161 searched is system dependent.
8163 (dynamic-object? VAL)
8165 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
8167 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
8169 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
8170 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
8172 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
8174 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
8175 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
8176 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
8177 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
8178 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
8181 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
8183 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
8184 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
8185 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
8186 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
8187 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
8189 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
8191 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
8192 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
8194 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
8196 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
8197 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
8198 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
8201 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
8203 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
8204 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
8205 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
8206 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
8208 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
8209 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
8211 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
8213 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
8214 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
8216 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
8218 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
8219 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
8227 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
8229 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
8230 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
8231 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
8232 a more informative way.
8234 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
8235 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
8236 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
8237 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
8238 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
8239 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
8241 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
8242 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
8245 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
8246 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
8247 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
8250 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
8251 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
8252 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
8253 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
8254 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
8255 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
8257 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
8258 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
8259 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
8260 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
8263 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
8264 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
8265 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
8266 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
8267 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
8268 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
8270 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
8271 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
8272 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
8273 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
8274 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
8276 *** regexp functions
8278 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
8279 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
8280 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
8282 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
8283 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
8284 with SCSH regular expressions.
8286 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
8287 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
8288 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
8289 position of STR at which to begin matching.
8291 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
8292 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
8293 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
8294 `string-match' returns `#f'.
8296 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
8297 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
8298 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
8299 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
8300 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
8301 match strings against the compiled regexp.
8303 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
8304 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
8305 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
8306 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
8307 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
8309 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
8311 **** Constant: regexp/extended
8312 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
8313 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
8314 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
8316 **** Constant: regexp/icase
8317 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
8318 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
8320 **** Constant: regexp/newline
8321 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
8323 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
8326 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
8327 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
8328 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
8330 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
8331 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
8332 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
8334 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
8335 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
8336 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
8337 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
8338 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
8341 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
8343 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
8344 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
8345 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
8346 used when different portions of a string are passed to
8347 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
8348 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
8350 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
8351 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
8352 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
8354 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
8355 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
8358 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
8359 and replace them with the contents of another string.
8361 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
8362 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
8363 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
8364 may be one of the following arguments:
8366 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
8368 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
8370 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
8371 the regexp match is written.
8373 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
8374 following the regexp match is written.
8376 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
8377 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
8380 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
8381 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
8382 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
8383 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
8384 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
8385 which should be matched against this regular expression.
8387 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
8390 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
8391 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
8392 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
8393 written out to PORT.
8395 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
8396 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
8397 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
8398 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
8399 will return after processing a single match.
8401 *** Match Structures
8403 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
8404 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
8405 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
8406 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
8407 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
8408 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
8411 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
8412 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
8413 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
8414 information about the original target string that was matched against a
8415 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
8417 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
8418 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
8419 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
8421 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
8422 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
8423 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
8424 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
8425 number N did not match, return `#f'.
8427 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
8428 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
8430 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
8431 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
8433 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
8434 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
8436 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
8437 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
8439 **** Function: match:count MATCH
8440 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
8441 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
8442 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
8444 **** Function: match:string MATCH
8445 Return the original TARGET string.
8447 *** Backslash Escapes
8449 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
8450 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
8451 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
8452 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
8453 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
8454 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
8456 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
8457 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
8458 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
8459 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
8460 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
8461 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
8462 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
8463 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
8465 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
8466 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
8467 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
8468 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
8469 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
8470 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
8471 each match a single backslash in the target string.
8473 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
8474 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
8475 return the resulting string.
8477 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
8478 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
8479 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
8480 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
8481 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
8482 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
8483 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
8484 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
8485 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
8486 translated to the single character `*'.
8488 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
8489 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
8490 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
8491 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
8492 consecutive backslashes:
8494 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
8496 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
8497 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
8498 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
8500 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
8501 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
8502 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
8503 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
8504 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
8505 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
8507 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
8509 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
8510 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
8511 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
8512 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
8513 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
8514 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
8515 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
8516 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
8517 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
8518 cumbersome escape syntax.
8520 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8522 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8524 * Changes to system call interfaces:
8526 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
8529 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
8531 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
8533 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
8536 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
8537 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
8538 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
8539 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
8540 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
8542 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
8543 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
8544 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
8545 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
8546 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
8547 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
8548 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
8551 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
8552 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
8553 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
8556 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
8557 `force-output' on every port open for output.
8559 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
8560 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
8561 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
8562 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
8563 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
8564 installed, you can say:
8566 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
8569 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8571 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
8572 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
8573 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
8574 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
8575 new dynamic roots and threads.
8578 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
8580 * Changes to the distribution.
8582 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
8584 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
8585 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
8586 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
8587 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
8588 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
8589 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
8590 programming language. These are packaged together because the
8591 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
8593 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
8596 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
8597 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
8602 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
8604 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
8605 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
8607 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
8608 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
8609 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
8610 the (command-line) function.
8611 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
8612 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
8613 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
8615 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
8616 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
8617 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
8618 command line arguments
8619 -ds do -s script at this point
8620 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
8621 -h, --help display this help and exit
8622 -v, --version display version information and exit
8623 \ read arguments from following script lines
8625 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
8626 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
8628 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8631 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8635 (main (command-line))
8637 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
8639 ekko a speckled gecko
8641 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
8642 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
8643 following list of command-line arguments:
8645 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
8647 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
8648 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
8649 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
8650 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
8651 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8653 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
8655 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
8657 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
8658 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
8661 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
8662 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
8663 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
8664 SCSH) for circumventing them.
8666 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
8667 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
8668 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
8669 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
8671 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
8675 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8679 If the user invokes this script as follows:
8681 ekko a speckled gecko
8683 Unix expands this into
8685 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
8687 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
8688 read from the second line of the script, producing:
8690 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8692 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
8693 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8695 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
8696 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
8697 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
8698 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
8699 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
8700 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
8701 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
8702 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
8703 it only terminates the argument list.)
8704 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
8705 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
8706 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
8707 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
8708 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
8709 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
8710 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
8711 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
8713 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
8715 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
8716 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
8717 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
8718 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
8719 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
8721 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
8722 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
8723 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
8725 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
8727 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
8728 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
8729 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
8730 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
8733 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
8734 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
8735 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
8737 * Changes to Scheme functions
8739 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
8740 and disabled by default.
8742 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
8743 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
8744 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
8745 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
8747 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
8749 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
8751 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
8752 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
8754 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
8755 (read-set! keywords #f)
8757 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
8758 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
8759 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
8762 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
8763 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
8764 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
8767 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
8768 support for Scheme functions.
8770 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8771 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
8772 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
8773 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
8776 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8777 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
8778 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
8781 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
8782 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
8783 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
8786 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
8787 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
8788 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
8789 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
8790 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
8791 display the result as a prompt.
8792 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
8794 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
8795 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
8796 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
8799 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
8800 procedure of zero arguments.
8802 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
8803 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
8804 argument is bound in the current module.
8806 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
8807 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
8808 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
8809 public bindings into the current module.
8811 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
8812 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
8814 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
8815 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
8817 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
8818 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
8820 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
8821 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
8823 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
8824 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
8826 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
8827 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
8828 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
8829 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
8830 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
8832 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
8833 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
8834 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
8835 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
8837 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
8840 ** Changes to I/O functions
8842 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
8843 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
8844 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
8846 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
8847 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
8848 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
8850 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
8851 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
8853 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
8854 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
8855 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
8856 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
8858 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
8860 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
8861 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
8863 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
8864 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
8865 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
8866 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
8867 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
8870 'trim omit delimiter from result
8871 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
8872 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
8873 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
8875 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
8877 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
8878 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
8880 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
8881 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
8882 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
8883 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
8884 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
8886 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
8887 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
8888 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
8890 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
8891 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
8892 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
8893 above, and defaults to 'peek.
8895 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
8896 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8898 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
8899 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
8901 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
8903 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
8904 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
8905 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
8906 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
8907 a delimiting character.
8908 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
8910 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
8911 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
8912 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
8913 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
8914 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
8915 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
8917 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
8918 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8920 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
8921 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
8922 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
8924 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
8925 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
8926 the array to read and write.
8928 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
8929 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
8932 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
8934 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
8937 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
8938 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
8939 Values for COMMAND are:
8941 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
8942 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
8943 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
8944 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
8945 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
8946 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
8947 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
8948 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
8950 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
8952 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
8953 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
8954 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
8955 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
8956 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
8957 corresponding return set will be the same.
8959 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
8962 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
8963 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
8964 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
8965 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
8966 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
8967 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
8968 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
8969 special file being created.
8971 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
8972 clashing with various SCSH forks.
8974 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
8975 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
8976 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
8977 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
8978 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
8979 and originating address.
8981 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
8982 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
8983 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
8985 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
8988 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
8989 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
8992 (status:exit-val STATUS)
8993 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
8994 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
8995 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
8996 this function returns #f.
8998 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
8999 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
9000 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
9003 (status:term-sig STATUS)
9004 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
9005 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
9008 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
9009 a valid STATUS value.
9011 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
9013 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
9014 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
9016 Component Accessor Setter
9017 ========================= ============ ============
9018 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
9019 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
9020 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
9021 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
9022 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
9023 year tm:year set-tm:year
9024 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
9025 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
9026 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
9027 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
9028 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
9030 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
9031 describing the host system:
9034 ============================================== ================
9035 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
9036 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
9037 release level of the operating system utsname:release
9038 version level of the operating system utsname:version
9039 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
9041 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
9042 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
9043 system's user database:
9046 ====================== =================
9047 user name passwd:name
9048 user password passwd:passwd
9051 real name passwd:gecos
9052 home directory passwd:dir
9053 shell program passwd:shell
9055 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
9056 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
9057 system's group database:
9060 ======================= ============
9061 group name group:name
9062 group password group:passwd
9064 group members group:mem
9066 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
9067 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
9071 ========================= ===============
9072 official name of host hostent:name
9073 alias list hostent:aliases
9074 host address type hostent:addrtype
9075 length of address hostent:length
9076 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
9078 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
9079 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
9083 ========================= ===============
9084 official name of net netent:name
9085 alias list netent:aliases
9086 net number type netent:addrtype
9087 net number netent:net
9089 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
9090 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
9094 ========================= ===============
9095 official protocol name protoent:name
9096 alias list protoent:aliases
9097 protocol number protoent:proto
9099 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
9100 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
9104 ========================= ===============
9105 official service name servent:name
9106 alias list servent:aliases
9107 port number servent:port
9108 protocol to use servent:proto
9110 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
9111 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
9114 ======================================== ===============
9115 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
9116 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
9117 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
9118 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
9120 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
9121 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
9122 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
9124 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
9125 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
9127 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
9128 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
9130 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
9131 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
9133 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
9135 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
9137 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
9138 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
9139 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
9141 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
9142 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
9143 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
9144 return the remaining characters as a string.
9146 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
9147 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
9148 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
9150 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
9152 * Changes to the gh_ interface
9154 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
9157 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
9160 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
9161 and returns the array
9163 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
9164 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
9165 the user to interpret the data both ways.
9167 * Changes to the scm_ interface
9169 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
9170 symbol's value from C code:
9172 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
9173 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
9174 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
9175 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
9177 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
9178 without assigning them a value.
9180 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
9181 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
9182 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
9184 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
9185 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
9186 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
9188 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
9189 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
9191 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
9192 doesn't actually care about that.
9194 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
9195 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
9196 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
9198 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
9199 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
9200 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
9201 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
9202 which we have just created and initialized.
9204 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
9205 should one occur. We call it like this:
9206 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
9208 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
9209 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
9210 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
9211 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
9212 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
9213 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
9216 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
9217 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
9218 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
9219 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
9220 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
9221 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
9222 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
9225 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
9226 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
9227 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
9228 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
9229 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
9232 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
9233 scm_internal_catch, except:
9235 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
9236 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
9237 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
9238 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
9241 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
9242 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
9243 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
9245 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
9246 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
9247 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
9248 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
9251 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
9252 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
9253 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
9255 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
9256 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
9257 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
9258 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
9259 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
9261 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
9262 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
9263 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
9265 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
9266 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
9267 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
9269 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
9270 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
9272 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
9273 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
9274 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
9277 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
9278 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
9279 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
9280 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
9281 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
9282 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
9283 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
9286 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
9287 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
9289 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
9290 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
9291 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
9292 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
9293 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
9296 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
9297 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
9299 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
9300 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
9303 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
9304 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
9306 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
9309 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
9310 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
9311 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
9312 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
9313 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
9314 given the following arguments:
9316 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
9318 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
9320 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
9322 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
9325 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
9326 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
9327 command-line arguments.
9329 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
9330 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
9331 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
9332 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
9333 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
9334 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
9337 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
9340 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
9341 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
9343 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
9344 rearranged slightly. They are now:
9346 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9347 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
9348 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
9349 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
9351 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9352 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
9354 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9355 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
9356 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
9357 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
9359 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
9360 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
9362 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
9363 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
9365 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
9367 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
9368 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
9369 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
9372 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
9373 returns a port instead of an FD object.
9375 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
9376 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
9381 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
9384 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
9386 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
9387 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
9388 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
9389 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
9391 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
9393 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
9395 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
9396 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
9397 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
9398 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
9399 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
9400 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
9401 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
9402 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
9403 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
9404 for more information.
9406 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
9407 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
9409 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
9410 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
9411 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
9412 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
9413 following two lines at the top of the file:
9415 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
9418 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
9419 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
9420 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
9422 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
9424 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
9426 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
9429 (display (car args))
9430 (if (pair? (cdr args))
9432 (loop (cdr args)))))
9435 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
9436 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
9437 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
9438 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
9439 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
9440 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
9444 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
9447 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
9450 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
9452 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
9453 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
9454 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
9455 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
9456 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
9459 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
9460 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
9461 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
9462 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
9463 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
9466 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
9469 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
9470 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
9471 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
9474 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
9475 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
9476 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
9478 to see a backtrace, and
9479 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
9480 to see them by default.
9484 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
9486 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
9488 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
9489 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
9492 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
9493 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
9494 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
9495 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
9498 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
9499 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
9500 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
9501 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
9502 functions which inspired them.
9504 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
9505 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
9509 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
9511 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
9513 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
9514 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
9517 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
9518 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
9519 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
9521 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
9522 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
9523 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
9524 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
9525 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
9527 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
9529 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
9530 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
9531 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
9534 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
9537 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
9539 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
9540 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
9541 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
9542 above should serve their purposes.
9544 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
9545 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
9546 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
9547 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
9549 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
9552 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
9553 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
9554 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
9555 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
9557 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
9558 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
9559 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
9560 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
9562 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
9563 for the `read' function.
9566 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
9567 to that of `integer?'.
9569 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
9570 use the R4RS names for these functions.
9572 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
9573 it simply returns the object's property list.
9575 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
9576 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
9577 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
9578 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
9580 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
9582 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
9585 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
9587 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
9588 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
9590 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
9592 void (*main_func) (),
9595 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
9596 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
9597 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
9598 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
9599 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
9601 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
9602 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
9603 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
9604 know which arguments have been processed.
9606 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
9607 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
9608 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
9609 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
9610 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
9612 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
9613 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
9614 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
9615 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
9616 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
9617 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
9618 people from making that mistake.
9620 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
9621 convenient ways to override these when desired.
9623 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
9625 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
9629 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
9632 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
9633 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
9634 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
9635 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
9638 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
9639 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
9640 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
9641 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
9644 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
9645 have been added to the Guile library.
9647 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
9648 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
9649 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
9652 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
9653 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
9654 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
9656 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
9657 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
9658 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
9659 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
9660 argument from the list.
9663 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
9666 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
9667 null-terminated string, and returns it.
9669 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
9670 to a Scheme port object.
9672 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
9673 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
9678 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
9680 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
9681 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
9682 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
9683 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
9684 code as a special datatype.
9686 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
9687 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
9688 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
9689 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
9690 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
9693 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
9694 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
9695 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
9696 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
9697 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
9699 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
9702 Copyright information:
9704 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
9706 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
9707 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
9708 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
9709 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
9711 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
9712 of this document, or of portions of it,
9713 under the above conditions, provided also that they
9714 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
9719 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"