1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes. -*- text -*-
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Changes since the stable branch:
9 * Changes to the standalone interpreter
11 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
13 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
14 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
16 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
18 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
19 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
21 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
23 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
25 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
27 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
30 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
31 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
32 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
34 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
35 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
36 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
37 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
48 ERROR: Numerical overflow
50 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
53 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
55 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
56 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
57 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
68 ** We now have uninterned symbols.
70 The new function 'make-symbol' will return a uninterned symbol. This
71 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
72 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
74 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
77 ** pretty-print has more options.
79 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
80 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
81 maximum output width. See its online documentation.
83 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
85 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
86 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
87 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
89 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
91 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
92 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
94 ** Removed: substring-move-left!, substring-move-right!
96 Use `substring-move!' instead.
98 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
100 Change your code to use either procedure->memoizing-macro or, probably better,
101 to use r5rs macros. Also, be aware that macro expansion will not be done
102 during evaluation, but prior to evaluation.
104 * Changes to the C interface
106 ** The struct scm_cell has been renamed to scm_t_cell
108 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
109 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
110 initializes a new cell (see below).
112 ** New functions for memory management
114 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
115 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
116 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
117 cause aborts in long running programs.
119 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
120 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
122 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_strdup,
123 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_realloc, scm_gc_free,
124 scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
125 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
126 details and for upgrading instructions.
128 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
129 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
130 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
132 ** New function: scm_str2string
134 This function creates a scheme string from a 0-terminated C string. The input
137 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
139 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
140 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
141 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
142 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
143 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
145 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
146 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
147 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
149 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, QT_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
150 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
152 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
154 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old macros
155 had problems because with them allocation and initialization was separated and
156 the GC could sometimes observe half initialized cells. Only careful coding by
157 the user of SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
159 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
161 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
164 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
166 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
168 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
170 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or, probably better, to use r5rs
171 macros. Also, be aware that macro expansion will not be done during
172 evaluation, but prior to evaluation.
174 ** Removed from scm_root_state: def_inp, def_outp, def_errp, together
175 with corresponding macros scm_def_inp, scm_def_outp and scm_def_errp.
176 These were undocumented and unused copies of the standard ports at the
177 time that Guile was initialised. Normally the current ports should be
178 used instead, obtained from scm_current_input_port () etc. If an
179 application needs to retain earlier ports, it should save them in a
180 gc-protected location.
182 ** Removed compile time option MEMOIZE_LOCALS
184 Now, caching of local variable positions during memoization is mandatory.
185 However, the option to disable the caching has most probably not been used
188 ** Removed compile time option SCM_RECKLESS
190 Full number of arguments checking of closures is mandatory now. However, the
191 option to disable the checking has most probably not been used anyway.
193 ** Removed compile time option SCM_CAUTIOUS
195 Full number of arguments checking of closures is mandatory now. However, the
196 option to disable the checking has most probably not been used anyway.
198 ** Removed definitions: scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify,
199 s_t_ify, scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
200 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, scm_tc16_allocated,
201 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY, SCM_IM_0_COND,
202 SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED, scm_debug_newcell,
203 scm_debug_newcell2, scm_substring_move_left_x, scm_substring_move_right_x,
204 long_long, ulong_long, scm_sizet, SCM_WNA, SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC,
205 SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL,
206 SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL,
207 SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, moddata, registered_mods,
208 scm_register_module_xxx, scm_registered_modules,
209 scm_clear_registered_modules, scm_wta, *top-level-lookup-closure*,
210 scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
211 scm_eval2, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR, SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR,
212 SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_GC8MARKP, SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK,
213 SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, scm_remember, scm_protect_object,
214 scm_unprotect_object, root_module_lookup_closure, scm_sym_app,
215 scm_sym_modules, module_prefix, make_modules_in_var,
216 beautify_user_module_x_var, try_module_autoload_var, scm_module_full_name,
217 scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module, scm_ensure_user_module,
218 scm_load_scheme_module, scm_port, scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_port_rw_active,
219 scm_close_all_ports_except, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_i_rstate,
220 SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_STRING_UCHARS, SCM_STRING_CHARS,
221 scm_read_only_string_p, scm_makstr, scm_makfromstr,
222 scm_make_shared_substring, scm_tc7_substring, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP,
223 SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP, scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
224 sym_huh, scm_variable_set_name_hint, scm_builtin_variable, SCM_VARVCELL,
225 SCM_UDVARIABLEP, SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_internal_with_fluids,
226 scm_make_gsubr, scm_make_gsubr_with_generic, scm_create_hook, list*,
227 SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4, SCM_LIST5,
228 SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9, scm_listify, scm_sloppy_memq,
229 scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member, scm_end_of_file_key,
230 scm_read_and_eval_x, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
231 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
232 scm_subr_entry, SCM_SUBR_DOC, scm_make_subr_opt, scm_make_subr,
233 scm_make_subr_with_generic, setjmp_type, setjmp_type,
234 scm_call_catching_errors, scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe,
235 scm_strprint_obj, scm_read_0str, scm_eval_0str, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
236 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
237 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
238 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR, scm_strhash,
239 scm_sym2vcell, scm_sym2ovcell_soft, scm_sym2ovcell,
240 scm_intern_obarray_soft, scm_intern_obarray, scm_intern, scm_intern0,
241 scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0, scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup,
242 scm_symbol_value0, scm_string_to_obarray_symbol, scm_intern_symbol,
243 scm_unintern_symbol, scm_symbol_binding, scm_symbol_interned_p,
244 scm_symbol_bound_p, scm_symbol_set_x, scm_gentemp,
245 scm_init_symbols_deprecated, s_vector_set_length_x, scm_vector_set_length_x,
246 scm_contregs, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_OPDIRP,
247 scm_fport, scm_option, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL,
248 SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT, scm_srcprops, scm_srcprops_chunk,
249 scm_info_frame, scm_stack, scm_array, scm_array_dim, SCM_ARRAY_CONTIGUOUS,
250 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA,
251 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY,
252 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
253 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
254 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int,
255 scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int,
256 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell,
257 SCM_ECONSP, SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
258 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable
260 Changes since Guile 1.4:
262 * Changes to the distribution
264 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
266 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
268 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
269 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
270 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
271 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
272 indicate major changes in Guile.
274 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
275 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
276 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
277 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
279 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
280 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
281 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
282 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
283 micro version number.
285 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
287 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
289 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
290 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
292 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
294 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
295 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
296 See INSTALL and README for more information.
298 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
300 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
301 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
302 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
305 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
307 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
310 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
312 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
313 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
315 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
317 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
318 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
321 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
323 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
326 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
329 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
331 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
333 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
334 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
335 open-output-string, get-output-string.
337 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
339 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
341 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
344 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
346 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
348 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
350 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
351 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
352 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
354 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
356 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
358 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
359 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
368 See README there for more info.
370 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
371 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
374 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
376 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
378 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
380 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
381 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
382 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
384 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
386 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
387 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
388 to be named `and-let*', of course.
390 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
391 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
393 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
398 (oop goops active-slot)
399 (oop goops composite-slot)
401 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
402 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
403 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
405 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
407 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
408 in the default environment:
410 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
411 %read-line write-line
413 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
414 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
416 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
418 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
421 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
422 can be used for similar functionality.
424 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
426 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
427 it defines two procedures:
429 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
431 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
432 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
433 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
436 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
438 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
439 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
440 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
443 ** New module (ice-9 match)
445 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
446 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
448 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
450 for complete documentation.
452 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
454 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
455 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
456 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
457 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
459 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
460 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
464 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
465 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
466 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
469 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
472 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
473 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
475 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
476 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
479 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
482 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
484 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
486 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
488 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
490 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
491 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
492 Scheme programs easier.
494 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
495 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
496 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
497 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
498 `cond-expand' when using this option.
501 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
502 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
504 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
507 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
509 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
510 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
511 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
514 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
516 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
518 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
519 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
520 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
521 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
522 was also ASCII, for example.
524 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
526 tag - no replacement.
527 fseek - replaced by seek.
528 list* - replaced by cons*.
530 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
534 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
535 (define m (make-safe-module))
536 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
537 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
538 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
540 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
542 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
543 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
544 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
546 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
548 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
549 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
550 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
551 from the issues related to the module system.
553 *** New function: load-extension
555 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
557 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
559 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
560 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
561 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
563 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
565 This function registers a initialization function for use by
566 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
567 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
568 support dynamic linking).
570 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
572 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
573 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
574 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
575 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
578 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
579 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
580 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
581 library and initialize it explicitely.
583 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
584 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
586 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
588 (define-module (foo bar))
590 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
592 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
594 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
595 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
597 (scheme-report-environment 5)
599 (interaction-environment)
605 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
607 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
608 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
609 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
610 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
612 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
613 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
614 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
615 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
616 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
617 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
618 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
619 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
620 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
621 one eval to the next.
623 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
624 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
625 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
626 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
627 subforms are at the top-level as well.
629 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
630 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
631 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
632 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
633 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
634 used in a lexical environment.
636 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
637 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
638 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
639 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
640 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
641 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
643 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
645 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
646 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
647 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
648 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
649 new facilities: selection and renaming.
651 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
652 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
653 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
655 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
656 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
658 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
659 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
660 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
663 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
665 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
666 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
667 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
668 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
671 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
672 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
673 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
674 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
677 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
678 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
680 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
681 ;; and all four by upcasing.
682 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
683 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
684 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
686 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
689 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
690 :renamer upcase-symbol))
692 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
693 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
694 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
696 See manual for more info.
698 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
700 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
701 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
702 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
704 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
706 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
707 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
708 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
710 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
711 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
712 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
713 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
715 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
717 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
718 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
720 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
721 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
722 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
723 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
724 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
727 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
728 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
729 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
730 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
731 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
732 successful and #f if it wasn't.
734 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
735 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
736 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
737 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
738 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
740 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
741 objects are usually permanent.
743 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
744 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
746 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
748 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
749 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
752 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
756 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
761 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
763 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
764 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
765 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
766 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
768 ** New function `make-object-property'
770 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
771 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
775 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
776 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
780 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
781 source properties eventually.
783 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
785 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
786 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
787 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
789 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
790 will be removed in the next release.
792 ** New define-module option: pure
794 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
799 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
802 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
804 Export names NAME1 ...
806 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
807 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
813 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
816 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
821 ** New function: object->string OBJ
823 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
825 ** New function: port? X
827 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
828 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
830 ** New function: file-port?
832 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
834 ** New function: port-for-each proc
836 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
837 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
838 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
839 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
840 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
842 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
844 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
845 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
846 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
847 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
848 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
851 ** New function: close-fdes fd
853 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
854 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
855 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
856 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
859 ** New function: crypt password salt
861 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
864 ** New function: chroot path
866 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
868 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
870 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
873 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
875 Get or set the priority of the running process.
877 ** New function: getpass prompt
879 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
882 ** New function: flock file operation
884 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
886 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
888 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
891 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
893 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
894 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
895 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
896 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
897 of the temporary file.
899 ** New function: open-input-string string
901 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
902 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
903 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
905 ** New function: open-output-string
907 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
908 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
910 ** New function: get-output-string
912 Return the contents of an output string port.
914 ** New function: identity
918 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
919 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
921 ** New function: inet-pton family address
923 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
924 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
925 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
928 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
929 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
931 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
933 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
934 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
935 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
938 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
939 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
940 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
944 Use `identity' instead.
950 ** Deprecated: return-it
954 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
956 Use `string-length' instead.
960 Use `logior' instead.
962 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
964 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
965 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
966 port-for-each is more flexible.
968 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
969 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
970 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
972 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
974 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
976 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
978 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
980 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
982 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
983 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
985 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
986 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
988 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
989 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
991 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
993 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
994 Removed function: builtin-bindings
996 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
997 Use module system operations for all variables.
999 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
1001 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
1004 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
1006 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
1007 The following bugs have been fixed:
1009 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
1010 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
1013 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
1014 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
1015 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
1017 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
1018 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
1020 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
1021 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
1024 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
1025 The expansion used to be like so:
1027 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
1029 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
1031 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
1033 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
1034 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
1036 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
1038 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
1039 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
1040 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
1044 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
1045 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
1047 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
1052 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
1053 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
1055 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
1056 and `d', other keywords allowed.
1057 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
1059 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
1062 * Changes to the C interface
1064 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
1066 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
1067 with "_t". What a concept.
1069 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
1071 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
1073 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
1077 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
1078 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
1080 *** C Functions removed
1082 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
1083 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
1084 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
1085 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
1086 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
1087 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
1088 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
1090 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
1092 Use scm_mem2string instead.
1094 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
1096 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
1098 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
1099 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
1101 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
1103 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
1106 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
1108 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
1110 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
1112 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments.
1116 scm_call_1 (proc, arg1);
1118 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
1120 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list
1125 scm_apply_1 (proc, arg1, args);
1127 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
1129 Create a list of the given number of elements.
1131 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
1133 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
1134 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
1136 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
1138 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
1140 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
1141 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
1142 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
1144 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
1146 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
1148 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
1149 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
1150 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
1153 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
1155 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
1157 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
1158 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
1160 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
1162 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
1163 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
1164 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
1165 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
1167 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
1168 scm_primitive_property_ref
1169 scm_primitive_property_set_x
1170 scm_primitive_property_del_x
1172 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
1173 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
1175 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
1177 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
1178 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
1179 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
1180 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
1182 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
1184 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
1185 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
1186 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
1187 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
1188 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
1189 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
1190 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
1192 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
1193 scm_remember_upto_here
1195 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
1197 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
1199 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
1200 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
1202 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
1204 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
1206 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
1208 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
1210 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
1212 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
1213 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
1214 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
1215 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
1216 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
1217 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
1219 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
1221 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
1223 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
1224 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
1225 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
1227 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
1229 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
1230 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
1231 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
1233 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
1235 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
1236 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
1239 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
1242 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
1243 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1246 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
1248 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
1250 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
1252 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
1254 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
1256 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
1258 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
1259 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
1260 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
1261 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1262 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
1263 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
1264 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
1265 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1266 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
1267 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
1268 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
1269 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
1270 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
1271 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
1272 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
1274 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
1275 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
1276 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
1277 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
1278 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
1279 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
1280 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
1281 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
1282 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
1283 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
1284 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
1285 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
1286 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
1287 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
1288 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
1289 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
1290 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
1291 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
1292 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
1293 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
1294 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
1295 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
1296 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
1297 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
1298 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
1299 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
1300 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
1301 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
1302 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
1304 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
1306 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
1308 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
1309 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
1311 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
1313 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
1315 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
1317 Use scm_string_hash instead.
1319 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
1321 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
1323 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
1325 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
1327 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
1330 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
1331 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
1333 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
1335 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
1337 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
1339 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
1341 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
1343 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
1345 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
1347 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
1350 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
1352 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
1354 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
1356 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
1357 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
1359 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
1360 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
1362 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
1364 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
1365 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
1366 scm_module_define, scm_define.
1368 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
1370 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
1372 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
1373 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
1375 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
1376 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
1377 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
1378 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
1380 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
1381 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
1382 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
1384 Use the new ones from above instead.
1386 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
1388 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
1389 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
1390 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
1392 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
1393 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
1395 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
1396 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
1399 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
1400 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
1402 Use the new functions instead.
1404 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
1407 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
1409 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
1411 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
1414 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
1416 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
1419 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
1421 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
1424 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
1425 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
1426 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
1428 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
1430 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
1431 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
1433 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
1434 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
1435 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
1436 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
1439 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
1441 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
1442 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
1443 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
1444 inexact for an exact.
1446 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
1447 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
1448 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
1451 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
1452 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
1453 accept an inexact argument.
1455 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
1456 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
1458 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
1461 ** New number validation macros:
1462 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
1466 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
1468 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
1469 scm_unprotect_object.
1471 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
1473 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
1475 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
1478 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
1480 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
1484 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
1486 * Changes to the distribution
1488 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
1490 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
1491 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
1492 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
1493 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
1494 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
1495 obtain these programs.
1496 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
1497 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
1499 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
1500 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
1501 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
1502 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
1503 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
1505 However, this approach means that minor differences between
1506 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
1507 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
1508 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
1512 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
1515 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
1516 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
1517 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
1518 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
1520 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
1522 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
1524 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
1525 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
1527 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
1528 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
1530 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
1531 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
1533 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
1534 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
1535 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
1536 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
1538 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
1540 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
1544 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
1545 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
1547 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
1549 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
1550 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
1552 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
1553 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
1554 number of objects of that kind.
1556 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
1558 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
1559 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
1560 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
1561 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
1562 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
1564 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
1566 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
1568 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
1570 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
1573 ** New module (ice-9 time)
1575 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
1577 ** New module (ice-9 history)
1579 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
1581 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1583 ** New command line option --debug
1585 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
1587 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
1589 ** New help facility
1591 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
1592 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
1593 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
1594 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
1595 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
1596 (help) gives this text
1598 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
1599 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
1601 Examples: (help help)
1603 (help "output-string")
1605 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
1607 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
1609 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
1610 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
1613 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
1614 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
1615 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
1618 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
1619 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
1620 use absolute filenames when possible.
1622 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
1623 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
1624 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
1627 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
1629 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
1630 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
1631 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
1632 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
1634 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
1636 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
1638 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
1639 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
1640 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
1642 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
1643 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
1644 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
1646 (read-enable 'positions)
1647 (debug-enable 'debug)
1649 ** Backtraces in scripts
1651 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
1655 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
1657 at the top of the script.
1659 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
1660 The second enables backtraces.)
1662 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
1664 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
1665 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
1666 substantially faster than before.
1668 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
1669 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
1671 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
1672 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
1674 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
1676 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
1677 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
1678 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
1680 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
1681 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
1682 when this hook is run in the future.
1684 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
1685 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
1687 ** Improvements to garbage collector
1689 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
1690 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
1693 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
1694 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
1695 more and more memory for certain programs.)
1697 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
1698 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
1700 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
1701 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
1703 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
1704 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
1705 in order not to need further allocation.)
1707 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
1710 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
1711 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
1712 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
1713 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
1715 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
1717 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
1720 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
1722 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
1725 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
1726 GC in percent of total heap size
1729 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
1730 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
1732 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
1734 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
1735 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
1737 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
1739 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
1740 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
1742 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
1744 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
1745 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
1749 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
1750 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
1752 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
1754 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1756 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
1758 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
1760 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
1762 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
1763 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
1765 (simple-format port message . args)
1766 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
1767 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
1768 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
1769 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
1770 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
1771 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
1772 Does not add a trailing newline."
1774 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
1776 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
1777 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
1779 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
1780 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
1782 ** Deprecated: list*
1784 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
1786 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
1788 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
1789 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
1791 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
1792 is returned as result.
1794 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
1796 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
1798 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
1800 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
1801 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
1804 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
1806 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
1808 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
1809 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
1811 * Changes to the gh_ interface
1813 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
1815 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
1817 * Changes to the scm_ interface
1819 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
1821 Thanks to Greg Badros!
1823 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
1825 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
1826 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
1827 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
1829 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
1832 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
1834 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
1835 the readability of argument checking.
1837 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
1839 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
1841 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
1843 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
1844 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
1845 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
1846 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
1847 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
1848 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
1849 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
1851 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
1853 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
1855 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
1856 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
1858 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
1860 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
1861 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
1864 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
1866 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
1867 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
1868 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
1870 Further, it is recommended not to rely on implementation details for guile's
1871 current implementation of bignums. It is planned to replace this
1872 implementation with gmp in the future.
1874 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
1875 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
1876 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
1878 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
1879 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
1880 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
1881 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
1882 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
1883 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
1884 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
1886 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
1887 scm_end_input (object);
1888 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
1889 ptob->flush (object);
1891 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
1892 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
1895 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
1897 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
1899 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
1900 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
1901 removed in a future version.
1903 ** The format of error message strings has changed
1905 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
1906 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
1907 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
1908 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
1910 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
1911 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
1913 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
1916 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
1918 in your configure.in.
1920 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
1925 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
1931 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
1933 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
1937 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
1938 (define make-message string-append)
1940 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
1942 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
1946 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
1951 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
1955 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
1957 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
1958 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
1960 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
1962 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
1963 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
1964 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
1965 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
1966 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
1967 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
1969 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
1970 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
1971 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
1973 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
1974 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
1975 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
1978 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
1979 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
1980 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
1981 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
1982 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
1984 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
1985 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
1986 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
1987 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
1988 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
1989 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
1990 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
1992 Destructors are not yet implemented.
1994 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
1995 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
1996 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
1998 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
1999 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
2000 KEY in the calling thread.
2002 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
2003 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
2004 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
2005 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
2006 associated with the key.
2008 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
2010 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
2011 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
2013 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
2015 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
2016 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
2017 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
2019 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
2021 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
2022 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
2024 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
2026 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
2028 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
2029 returned is undefined.
2031 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
2032 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
2033 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
2035 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
2036 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
2037 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
2039 ** New C level GC hooks
2041 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
2043 scm_before_gc_c_hook
2046 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
2047 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
2048 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
2050 scm_before_mark_c_hook
2051 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
2052 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
2054 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
2055 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
2058 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
2060 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
2061 allocation parameters
2063 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
2064 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
2065 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
2069 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
2070 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
2071 scm_default_max_segment_size
2073 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
2075 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
2076 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
2078 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
2080 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
2081 object and count on the object being protected until
2082 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
2084 The functions also have better time complexity.
2086 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
2087 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
2088 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
2089 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
2090 are no longer needed.
2092 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
2094 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
2095 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
2096 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
2097 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
2099 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
2101 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
2103 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
2105 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
2106 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
2107 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
2108 until this issue has been settled.
2110 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
2112 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
2114 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
2117 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
2119 * Changes to system call interfaces:
2121 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
2122 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
2123 descriptors were checked.
2125 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
2126 atomically written to a pipe.
2128 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
2129 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
2130 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
2131 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
2132 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
2133 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
2134 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
2137 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
2138 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
2139 is changed without calling tzset.
2141 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
2143 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
2144 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
2145 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
2147 (define write-network-long
2148 (lambda (value port)
2149 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
2150 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
2151 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
2153 (define read-network-long
2155 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
2156 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
2157 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
2159 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
2160 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
2162 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
2163 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
2164 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
2165 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
2167 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
2168 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
2169 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
2170 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
2174 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
2176 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2180 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
2181 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
2182 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
2188 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
2189 for a description of available commands.
2191 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
2192 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
2193 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
2195 (debug-enable 'backwards)
2197 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
2198 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
2200 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
2202 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
2204 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
2205 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
2206 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
2207 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
2208 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
2209 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
2212 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
2214 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
2215 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
2216 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
2217 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
2219 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
2220 the file and should not be affected by this change.
2222 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
2224 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2226 ** Readline support has changed again.
2228 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
2229 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
2230 to activate readline is now
2232 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
2235 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
2237 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
2238 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
2239 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
2242 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
2243 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
2244 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
2247 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
2248 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
2249 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
2250 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
2251 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
2252 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
2254 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
2255 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
2257 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
2259 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
2260 object it receives is the same string passed to
2261 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
2262 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
2263 string, not the suffix.
2265 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
2266 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
2267 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
2269 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
2271 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
2272 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
2273 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
2274 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
2277 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
2279 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
2281 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
2282 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
2283 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
2284 appear from left to right.
2286 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
2289 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
2291 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
2292 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
2294 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
2298 *** New function: hook? OBJ
2300 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
2302 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
2304 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
2305 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
2306 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
2308 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
2310 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
2312 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
2314 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
2317 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
2319 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
2320 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
2321 mentioning it here anyway.
2323 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
2325 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
2326 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
2327 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
2328 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
2331 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
2333 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
2335 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
2337 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
2338 otherwise return #f.
2340 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
2342 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
2343 returned by `opendir'.
2345 ** New function: using-readline?
2347 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
2349 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
2351 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
2352 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
2354 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2356 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
2358 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
2359 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
2360 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
2362 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
2364 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
2365 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
2367 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
2369 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
2370 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
2371 documentation slots are not yet used.
2373 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
2375 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
2376 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
2377 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
2382 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
2383 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
2384 (string-append x y))
2386 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
2387 can also be used for concatenating strings.
2389 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
2390 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
2391 be made in a clean way.]
2393 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
2395 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
2397 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
2399 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
2400 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
2402 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
2404 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
2406 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
2408 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
2410 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
2411 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
2412 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
2413 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
2416 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
2418 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
2420 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
2422 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
2424 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
2425 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
2427 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
2429 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
2431 Evaluates the body of a special form.
2433 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
2435 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
2436 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
2437 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
2438 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
2439 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
2440 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
2442 This should not make any difference for most users.
2444 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
2446 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
2447 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
2449 *** New functions for applying generic functions
2451 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
2452 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
2453 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
2454 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
2455 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
2457 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
2459 It is now replaced by:
2461 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
2463 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
2464 binds a variable named NAME to it.
2466 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
2468 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
2469 This might change when we get the new module system.
2471 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
2475 Changes since Guile 1.3:
2477 * Changes to mailing lists
2479 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
2481 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
2484 * Changes to the distribution
2486 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
2488 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
2489 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
2490 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
2491 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
2492 you explicitly specify it.
2494 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
2495 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
2496 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
2497 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
2498 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
2501 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
2502 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
2503 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
2504 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
2506 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
2507 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
2508 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
2511 You can activate the readline support by issuing
2513 (use-modules (readline-activator))
2516 from your ".guile" file, for example.
2518 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2520 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
2521 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
2522 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
2523 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
2525 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
2526 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
2529 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2531 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
2532 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
2533 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
2534 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
2535 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
2536 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
2537 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
2538 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
2550 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
2551 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
2552 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
2553 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
2554 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
2559 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
2560 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
2568 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
2573 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
2574 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
2577 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
2578 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
2579 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
2580 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
2582 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
2584 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
2586 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
2587 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
2589 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
2591 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
2593 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
2594 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
2596 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
2599 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
2601 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
2603 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
2605 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
2607 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
2609 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
2611 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
2612 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
2613 when the hook was created.
2615 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
2616 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
2617 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
2618 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
2619 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
2620 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
2621 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
2622 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
2623 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
2625 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
2626 the dlopen family of functions.
2628 ** New function `provided?'
2630 - Function: provided? FEATURE
2631 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
2632 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
2633 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
2635 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
2637 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
2638 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
2639 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
2640 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
2643 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
2644 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
2645 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
2646 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
2648 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
2649 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
2650 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
2653 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
2654 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
2655 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
2656 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
2657 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
2658 but with the flag set.
2660 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
2662 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
2663 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
2665 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
2666 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
2667 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
2668 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
2669 available Scheme format implementations.
2671 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
2672 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
2673 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
2674 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
2675 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
2676 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
2677 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
2678 output is to the current error port if available by the
2679 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
2682 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
2683 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
2684 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
2685 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
2686 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
2687 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
2688 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
2689 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
2691 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
2692 be executed at a time.
2695 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
2697 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
2698 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
2699 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
2701 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
2702 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
2703 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
2704 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
2705 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
2706 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
2707 general form of a directive is:
2709 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
2711 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
2713 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2715 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
2716 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
2717 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
2720 Any (print as `display' does).
2724 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
2728 S-expression (print as `write' does).
2732 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
2738 print number sign always.
2741 print comma separated.
2743 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
2749 print number sign always.
2752 print comma separated.
2754 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
2760 print number sign always.
2763 print comma separated.
2765 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
2771 print number sign always.
2774 print comma separated.
2776 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
2781 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
2785 print a number as a Roman numeral.
2788 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
2791 print a number as an ordinal English number.
2794 print a number as a cardinal English number.
2799 prints `y' and `ies'.
2802 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
2805 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
2810 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
2814 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
2817 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
2818 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
2820 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2823 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
2824 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
2826 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2829 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
2831 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
2833 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2836 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
2838 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
2840 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2843 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
2846 The sign appears before the padding.
2854 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
2856 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
2861 print N page separators.
2871 newline is ignored, white space left.
2874 newline is left, white space ignored.
2879 relative tabulation.
2885 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
2887 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
2890 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
2892 converts by `string-capitalize'.
2895 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
2898 converts by `string-upcase'.
2901 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
2903 jumps N arguments forward.
2906 jumps 1 argument backward.
2909 jumps N arguments backward.
2912 jumps to the 0th argument.
2915 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
2917 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
2918 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
2920 take argument from N.
2923 true test conditional.
2926 if-else-then conditional.
2932 default clause follows.
2935 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
2937 at most N iterations.
2940 args from next arg (a list of lists).
2943 args from the rest of arguments.
2946 args from the rest args (lists).
2957 aborts if N <= M <= K
2959 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2962 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2965 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2971 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
2973 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
2975 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
2976 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
2977 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
2978 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
2979 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
2980 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
2984 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
2988 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
2994 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
2997 Print a `#\space' character
2999 print N `#\space' characters.
3002 Print a `#\tab' character
3004 print N `#\tab' characters.
3007 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
3008 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
3009 must be a positive decimal number.
3012 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3013 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3014 be processed by `read'.
3017 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3018 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3019 be processed by `read'.
3022 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
3025 prints format version.
3028 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
3029 and format it accordingly.
3031 *** Configuration Variables
3033 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
3034 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
3035 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
3036 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
3039 format:symbol-case-conv
3040 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
3041 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
3042 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
3043 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
3044 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
3046 format:iobj-case-conv
3047 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
3048 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
3051 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
3054 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
3060 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
3061 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
3062 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
3063 `format' padding style.
3066 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
3067 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
3068 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
3069 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
3073 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
3074 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
3075 directive parameters or modifiers)).
3078 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
3079 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
3080 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
3081 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
3082 parameters or modifiers)).
3085 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
3087 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
3089 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
3090 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
3092 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
3093 string-downcase! functions.
3095 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
3096 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
3098 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
3101 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
3104 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
3105 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
3107 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
3109 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
3110 the symbol had be read by `read'.
3112 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
3113 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
3114 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
3115 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
3116 would if STRING were input.
3118 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
3120 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
3121 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
3122 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
3123 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
3126 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
3128 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
3129 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
3132 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
3134 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
3135 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
3137 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
3138 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
3140 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
3141 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
3142 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
3143 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
3145 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
3146 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
3148 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
3149 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
3150 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
3152 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
3153 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
3155 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
3156 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
3157 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
3158 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
3159 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
3161 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
3162 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
3163 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
3164 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
3165 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
3166 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
3168 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
3169 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
3170 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
3173 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
3174 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
3175 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
3176 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
3177 the following grammar:
3178 ((apples (single-char #\a))
3179 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
3180 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
3181 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
3182 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
3183 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
3184 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
3185 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
3186 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
3187 last option in its combination)
3189 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
3190 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
3191 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
3192 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
3194 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
3195 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
3196 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
3198 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
3199 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
3200 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
3202 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
3203 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
3204 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
3205 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
3206 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
3207 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
3208 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
3209 ordinary argument strings.
3211 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
3212 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
3213 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
3214 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
3216 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
3217 as a list, associated with the empty list.
3219 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
3220 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
3221 - a required option is omitted
3222 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
3223 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
3224 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
3225 - an option predicate fails
3230 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
3233 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
3234 (verbose (required? #f)
3237 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
3238 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
3239 (predicate ,string?))))
3241 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
3242 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
3244 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
3245 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
3246 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
3247 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
3250 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
3252 It will be removed in a few releases.
3254 ** New syntax: lambda*
3255 ** New syntax: define*
3256 ** New syntax: define*-public
3257 ** New syntax: defmacro*
3258 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
3259 Guile now supports optional arguments.
3261 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
3262 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
3263 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
3264 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
3265 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
3267 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
3268 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
3269 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
3271 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
3273 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
3274 and examples for `lambda*':
3277 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
3279 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
3280 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
3281 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
3282 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
3283 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
3284 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
3285 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
3286 can be checked with the bound? macro.
3288 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
3290 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
3291 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
3292 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
3293 are given as keywords are bound to values.
3295 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
3296 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
3297 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
3298 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
3299 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
3300 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
3301 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
3302 and until the procedure is called.
3304 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
3306 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
3307 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
3308 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
3309 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
3310 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
3311 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
3312 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
3313 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
3314 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
3315 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
3317 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
3318 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
3319 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
3320 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
3323 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
3325 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
3326 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
3327 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
3328 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
3330 ** New syntax: and-let*
3331 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
3333 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
3334 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
3335 (<variable> <expression>)
3338 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
3339 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
3340 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
3343 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
3344 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
3345 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
3346 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
3347 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
3348 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
3349 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
3351 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
3352 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
3353 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
3354 shadow earlier bindings.
3356 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
3358 ** New sorting functions
3360 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
3361 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
3362 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
3363 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
3365 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
3366 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
3369 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
3370 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
3371 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
3373 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
3374 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
3375 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
3376 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
3378 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
3379 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
3380 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
3381 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
3382 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
3385 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
3386 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
3387 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
3388 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
3389 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
3390 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
3392 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
3393 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
3394 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
3396 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
3397 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
3398 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
3401 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
3402 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
3403 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
3405 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
3406 Added for compatibility with scsh.
3408 ** New built-in random number support
3410 *** New function: random N [STATE]
3411 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
3412 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
3413 returned have a uniform distribution.
3415 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
3416 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
3417 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
3418 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
3419 effect of the `random' operation.
3421 *** New variable: *random-state*
3422 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
3423 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
3424 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
3425 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
3426 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
3429 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
3430 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
3431 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
3432 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
3433 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
3435 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
3436 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
3437 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
3438 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
3439 initialized using SEED.
3441 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
3442 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
3443 range between 0 and 1.
3445 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
3446 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
3447 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
3448 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
3449 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
3450 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
3451 or a uniform vector of doubles.
3453 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
3454 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
3455 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
3456 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
3457 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
3458 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
3460 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
3461 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
3462 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
3463 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
3465 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
3466 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
3467 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
3468 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
3470 *** New function: random:exp STATE
3471 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
3472 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
3474 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
3476 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
3479 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
3480 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
3483 ** New function: make-guardian
3484 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
3485 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
3486 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
3487 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
3488 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
3490 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
3491 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
3492 one object if at all.
3494 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
3495 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
3496 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
3498 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
3499 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
3500 read again in last-in first-out order.
3502 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
3503 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
3505 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
3507 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
3508 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
3509 file position is used.
3511 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
3512 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
3513 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
3515 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
3516 redefined using seek.
3518 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
3519 size is not supplied.
3521 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
3522 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
3524 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
3525 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
3527 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
3529 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
3530 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
3531 and returns the contents as a single string.
3533 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
3534 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
3535 lists in serial order.
3537 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
3538 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
3539 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
3541 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
3542 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
3543 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
3544 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
3546 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
3547 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
3548 and #f if an error occured.
3550 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
3552 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
3553 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
3554 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
3555 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
3557 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
3559 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
3562 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
3564 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
3567 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3571 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
3572 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
3574 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
3575 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
3579 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3581 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
3583 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3584 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3586 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3588 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
3589 might change when we get the new module system.
3591 ** The smob interface
3593 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
3594 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
3596 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
3598 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
3602 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
3603 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
3604 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
3605 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
3606 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
3607 will be freed by the default free function.
3609 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
3610 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
3611 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3612 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3614 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
3615 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
3616 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3617 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3619 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
3621 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
3622 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
3626 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
3627 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3628 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3630 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
3631 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
3632 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3633 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3635 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
3636 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
3637 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
3639 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
3640 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
3641 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
3642 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
3644 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
3645 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
3646 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
3648 *** scm_newptob has been removed
3652 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
3654 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
3655 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
3656 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
3658 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
3659 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
3660 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
3662 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
3663 a string port's buffer.
3665 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
3666 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
3667 function pointers which together define the current random number
3668 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
3669 number library functions.
3671 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
3674 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
3675 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
3678 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
3679 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
3681 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
3682 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
3684 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
3685 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
3688 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
3689 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
3690 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
3691 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
3693 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
3694 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
3695 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
3696 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
3697 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
3698 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
3699 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
3701 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
3702 by libguile and the application.
3704 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
3705 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
3706 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
3707 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
3709 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
3710 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
3712 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
3713 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
3714 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
3716 ** Random number library functions
3717 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
3718 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
3719 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
3721 The default random state is stored in:
3723 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
3724 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
3725 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
3730 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
3732 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
3733 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
3734 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
3735 isn't a random state.
3737 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
3738 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
3740 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
3741 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
3742 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
3743 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
3745 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3746 Return 32 random bits.
3748 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3749 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
3751 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3752 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
3754 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3755 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
3757 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
3758 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
3760 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
3761 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
3762 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
3766 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
3768 * Changes to the distribution
3770 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
3771 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
3772 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
3775 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
3776 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
3777 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
3779 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
3780 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
3781 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
3782 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
3785 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
3786 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
3787 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
3789 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3791 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
3793 *** Function: batch-mode?
3795 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
3798 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
3800 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
3801 case has not been implemented.
3803 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
3804 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
3805 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
3808 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
3809 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
3811 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
3813 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
3815 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
3817 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
3818 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
3821 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
3822 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
3823 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
3824 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
3827 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
3829 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
3830 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
3831 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
3832 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
3833 find those libraries.
3835 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
3836 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
3839 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
3841 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
3842 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
3843 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
3844 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
3846 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
3847 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
3848 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
3852 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
3854 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
3855 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
3856 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
3859 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
3860 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
3861 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
3862 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
3864 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
3865 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
3868 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
3869 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
3870 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
3871 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
3872 compiler where to find the libraries.
3874 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
3875 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
3876 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
3878 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
3879 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
3880 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
3881 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
3882 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
3886 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3888 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
3889 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
3890 internationalization support.
3892 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
3893 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
3894 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
3895 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
3896 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
3898 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
3899 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
3900 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
3901 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
3902 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
3904 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
3905 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
3906 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
3907 any GNU mirror site.
3909 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
3911 ** New function: add-history STRING
3912 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
3913 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
3914 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
3916 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
3918 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
3919 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
3920 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
3923 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
3924 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
3925 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
3927 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
3929 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
3932 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
3933 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
3936 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
3937 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
3938 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
3939 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
3940 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
3941 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
3943 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
3944 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
3945 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
3946 of the form mentioned above.
3948 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
3949 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
3950 returned in the special `rest' list.
3952 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
3953 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
3955 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
3957 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
3959 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
3961 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
3962 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
3963 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
3964 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
3965 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
3966 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
3967 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
3968 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
3971 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
3973 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
3975 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
3976 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
3979 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
3980 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
3981 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
3985 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
3986 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
3987 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
3988 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
3989 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
3990 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
3991 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
3992 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
3995 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
3997 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
3998 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
3999 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
4001 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
4003 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
4004 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
4006 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
4007 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
4008 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
4010 Why do we have this function?
4011 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
4012 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
4013 primitive, and display it differently, and
4014 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
4015 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
4018 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
4019 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
4022 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
4023 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
4024 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
4025 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
4027 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
4028 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
4031 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
4032 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
4034 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
4036 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
4037 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
4038 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
4039 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
4040 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
4041 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
4042 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
4045 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
4047 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
4048 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
4050 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
4051 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
4052 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
4053 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
4054 properly continue the print chain.
4056 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
4057 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
4058 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
4059 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
4060 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
4061 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
4062 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
4063 print-state, it is simply ignored.
4065 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
4066 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
4067 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
4068 safest to not check for these pairs.
4070 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
4071 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
4072 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
4073 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
4075 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
4077 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
4078 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
4080 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
4082 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
4084 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
4085 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
4086 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
4088 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
4089 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
4090 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
4092 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
4093 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
4094 the following functions and macros:
4096 Function: make-fluid
4098 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
4099 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
4100 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
4101 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
4102 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
4104 Function: fluid? OBJ
4106 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
4108 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
4109 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
4111 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
4112 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
4114 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
4116 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
4117 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
4118 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
4119 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
4120 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
4121 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
4122 modified by `with-fluids*'.
4124 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
4126 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
4127 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
4128 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
4129 should evaluate to a fluid.
4131 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
4133 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
4134 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
4135 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
4136 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
4137 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
4139 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
4142 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
4144 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
4146 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
4148 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
4151 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
4152 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
4153 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
4154 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
4155 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
4158 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
4159 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
4160 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
4162 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
4163 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
4164 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
4166 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
4167 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
4168 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
4169 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
4171 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
4172 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
4173 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
4174 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
4176 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
4177 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
4178 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
4179 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
4181 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
4182 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
4183 their revealed counts set to zero.
4185 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4186 Returns an integer file descriptor.
4188 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4189 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
4191 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4192 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
4194 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
4195 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
4196 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
4198 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
4199 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
4200 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
4202 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
4203 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
4204 default environment inherited by child processes.
4206 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
4207 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
4208 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
4210 The return value is unspecified.
4212 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
4213 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
4214 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
4215 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
4216 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
4218 The return value is unspecified.
4220 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
4221 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
4229 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
4230 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
4233 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
4236 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
4237 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
4238 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
4240 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
4241 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
4242 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
4243 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
4246 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
4247 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
4249 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
4250 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
4251 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
4252 the `environ' procedure.
4254 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
4255 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
4258 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
4259 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
4261 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
4262 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
4263 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
4264 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
4266 *** procedure: times
4267 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
4268 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
4269 return a selected component:
4272 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
4276 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
4279 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
4283 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
4284 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
4288 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
4289 terminated child processes.
4291 ** Removed: list-length
4292 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
4293 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
4295 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
4297 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
4299 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
4301 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
4302 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
4303 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
4304 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
4306 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
4307 extra complexity it introduces.
4309 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
4310 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
4312 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
4313 variable to any non-empty value.
4315 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
4316 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
4318 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4320 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
4321 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
4323 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
4325 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
4326 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
4328 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
4330 ** vector handling routines
4332 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
4333 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
4334 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
4335 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
4336 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
4338 ** pair and list routines
4340 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
4343 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
4345 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
4348 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4350 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
4352 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
4353 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
4354 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
4355 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
4356 site-specific initialization code.
4358 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
4359 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
4360 initialization processes.
4362 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
4363 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
4364 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
4365 initialized properly.
4367 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
4368 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
4369 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
4371 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
4372 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
4373 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
4374 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
4375 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
4377 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
4379 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
4380 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
4381 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
4382 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
4383 objects the smob refers to get marked.
4385 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
4386 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
4387 which look like this:
4390 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
4392 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
4393 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
4396 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
4397 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
4400 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
4402 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
4403 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
4404 you will need to change your functions slightly.
4406 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
4407 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
4408 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
4409 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
4410 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
4412 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
4413 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
4415 int (*free) (SCM port);
4416 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
4417 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
4418 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
4422 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
4423 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
4424 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
4426 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
4429 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
4430 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
4431 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
4433 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
4434 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
4435 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
4438 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
4442 struct timeval *timeout);
4444 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
4445 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
4446 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
4447 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
4448 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
4449 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
4451 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
4452 scm_catch_body_t body,
4454 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
4457 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
4458 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
4459 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
4460 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
4461 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
4462 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
4464 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
4466 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
4469 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
4470 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
4471 spawning threads from application C code.
4473 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
4474 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
4475 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
4476 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
4477 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
4478 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
4480 ** Removed functions:
4482 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
4483 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
4485 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
4487 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
4488 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
4490 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
4492 ** mbstrings are now removed
4494 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
4495 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
4497 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
4499 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
4500 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
4501 their new names and arguments:
4503 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
4504 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
4505 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
4506 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
4509 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
4511 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
4513 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
4516 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
4518 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
4519 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
4520 pass a #f arg to catch.
4522 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
4524 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
4525 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
4528 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
4529 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
4530 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
4531 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
4532 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
4533 reclaim its storage.
4535 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
4536 worrying that some other function you call will call
4537 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
4538 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
4539 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
4540 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
4543 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
4545 * Changes to the distribution
4547 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
4548 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
4551 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
4552 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
4554 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
4555 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
4557 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
4559 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
4560 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
4561 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
4563 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4565 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
4566 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
4567 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
4568 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
4569 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
4570 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
4572 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
4573 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
4574 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
4577 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
4578 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
4579 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
4580 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
4582 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
4583 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
4584 libraries to your link command:
4586 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
4587 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
4588 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
4589 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
4591 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
4592 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
4593 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
4595 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4597 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
4598 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
4601 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
4603 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
4604 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
4605 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
4606 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
4607 searched is system dependent.
4609 (dynamic-object? VAL)
4611 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
4613 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
4615 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
4616 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
4618 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
4620 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
4621 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
4622 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
4623 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
4624 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
4627 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
4629 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
4630 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
4631 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
4632 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
4633 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
4635 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
4637 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
4638 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
4640 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
4642 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
4643 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
4644 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
4647 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
4649 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
4650 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
4651 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
4652 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
4654 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
4655 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
4657 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
4659 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
4660 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
4662 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
4664 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
4665 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
4673 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
4675 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
4676 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
4677 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
4678 a more informative way.
4680 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
4681 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
4682 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
4683 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
4684 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
4685 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
4687 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
4688 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
4691 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
4692 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
4693 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
4696 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
4697 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
4698 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
4699 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
4700 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
4701 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
4703 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
4704 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
4705 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
4706 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
4709 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
4710 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
4711 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
4712 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
4713 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
4714 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
4716 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
4717 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
4718 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
4719 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
4720 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
4722 *** regexp functions
4724 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
4725 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
4726 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
4728 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
4729 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
4730 with SCSH regular expressions.
4732 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
4733 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
4734 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
4735 position of STR at which to begin matching.
4737 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
4738 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
4739 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
4740 `string-match' returns `#f'.
4742 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
4743 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
4744 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
4745 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
4746 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
4747 match strings against the compiled regexp.
4749 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
4750 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
4751 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
4752 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
4753 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
4755 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
4757 **** Constant: regexp/extended
4758 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
4759 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
4760 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
4762 **** Constant: regexp/icase
4763 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
4764 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
4766 **** Constant: regexp/newline
4767 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
4769 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
4772 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
4773 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
4774 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
4776 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
4777 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
4778 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
4780 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
4781 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
4782 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
4783 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
4784 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
4787 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
4789 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
4790 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
4791 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
4792 used when different portions of a string are passed to
4793 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
4794 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
4796 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
4797 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
4798 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
4800 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
4801 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
4804 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
4805 and replace them with the contents of another string.
4807 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
4808 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
4809 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
4810 may be one of the following arguments:
4812 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
4814 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
4816 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
4817 the regexp match is written.
4819 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
4820 following the regexp match is written.
4822 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
4823 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
4826 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
4827 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
4828 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
4829 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
4830 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
4831 which should be matched against this regular expression.
4833 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
4836 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
4837 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
4838 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
4839 written out to PORT.
4841 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
4842 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
4843 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
4844 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
4845 will return after processing a single match.
4847 *** Match Structures
4849 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
4850 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
4851 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
4852 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
4853 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
4854 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
4857 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
4858 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
4859 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
4860 information about the original target string that was matched against a
4861 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
4863 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
4864 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
4865 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
4867 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
4868 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
4869 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
4870 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
4871 number N did not match, return `#f'.
4873 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
4874 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
4876 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
4877 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
4879 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
4880 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
4882 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
4883 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
4885 **** Function: match:count MATCH
4886 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
4887 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
4888 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
4890 **** Function: match:string MATCH
4891 Return the original TARGET string.
4893 *** Backslash Escapes
4895 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
4896 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
4897 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
4898 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
4899 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
4900 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
4902 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
4903 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
4904 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
4905 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
4906 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
4907 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
4908 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
4909 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
4911 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
4912 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
4913 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
4914 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
4915 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
4916 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
4917 each match a single backslash in the target string.
4919 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
4920 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
4921 return the resulting string.
4923 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
4924 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
4925 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
4926 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
4927 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
4928 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
4929 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
4930 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
4931 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
4932 translated to the single character `*'.
4934 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
4935 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
4936 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
4937 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
4938 consecutive backslashes:
4940 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
4942 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
4943 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
4944 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
4946 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
4947 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
4948 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
4949 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
4950 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
4951 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
4953 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
4955 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
4956 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
4957 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
4958 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
4959 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
4960 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
4961 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
4962 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
4963 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
4964 cumbersome escape syntax.
4966 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4968 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4970 * Changes to system call interfaces:
4972 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
4975 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
4977 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
4979 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
4982 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
4983 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
4984 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
4985 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
4986 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
4988 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
4989 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
4990 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
4991 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
4992 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
4993 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
4994 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
4997 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
4998 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
4999 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
5002 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
5003 `force-output' on every port open for output.
5005 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
5006 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
5007 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
5008 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
5009 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
5010 installed, you can say:
5012 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
5015 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5017 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
5018 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
5019 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
5020 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
5021 new dynamic roots and threads.
5024 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
5026 * Changes to the distribution.
5028 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
5030 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
5031 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
5032 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
5033 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
5034 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
5035 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
5036 programming language. These are packaged together because the
5037 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
5039 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
5042 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
5043 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
5048 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5050 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
5051 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
5053 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
5054 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
5055 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
5056 the (command-line) function.
5057 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
5058 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
5059 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
5061 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
5062 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
5063 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
5064 command line arguments
5065 -ds do -s script at this point
5066 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
5067 -h, --help display this help and exit
5068 -v, --version display version information and exit
5069 \ read arguments from following script lines
5071 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
5072 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
5074 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5077 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5081 (main (command-line))
5083 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
5085 ekko a speckled gecko
5087 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
5088 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
5089 following list of command-line arguments:
5091 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
5093 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
5094 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
5095 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
5096 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
5097 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5099 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
5101 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
5103 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
5104 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
5107 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
5108 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
5109 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
5110 SCSH) for circumventing them.
5112 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
5113 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
5114 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
5115 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
5117 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
5121 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5125 If the user invokes this script as follows:
5127 ekko a speckled gecko
5129 Unix expands this into
5131 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
5133 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
5134 read from the second line of the script, producing:
5136 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
5138 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
5139 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5141 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
5142 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
5143 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
5144 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
5145 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
5146 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
5147 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
5148 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
5149 it only terminates the argument list.)
5150 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
5151 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
5152 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
5153 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
5154 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
5155 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
5156 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
5157 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
5159 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5161 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
5162 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
5163 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
5164 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
5165 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
5167 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
5168 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
5169 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
5171 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
5173 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
5174 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
5175 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
5176 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
5179 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
5180 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5181 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5183 * Changes to Scheme functions
5185 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
5186 and disabled by default.
5188 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
5189 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
5190 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
5191 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
5193 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
5195 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
5197 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
5198 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
5200 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
5201 (read-set! keywords #f)
5203 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
5204 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
5205 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
5208 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
5209 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
5210 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
5213 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
5214 support for Scheme functions.
5216 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
5217 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
5218 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
5219 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
5222 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
5223 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
5224 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
5227 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
5228 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
5229 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
5232 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
5233 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
5234 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
5235 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
5236 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
5237 display the result as a prompt.
5238 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
5240 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
5241 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
5242 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
5245 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
5246 procedure of zero arguments.
5248 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
5249 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
5250 argument is bound in the current module.
5252 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
5253 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
5254 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
5255 public bindings into the current module.
5257 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
5258 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
5260 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
5261 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
5263 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
5264 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
5266 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
5267 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
5269 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
5270 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
5272 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
5273 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
5274 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
5275 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
5276 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
5278 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
5279 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
5280 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
5281 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
5283 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
5286 ** Changes to I/O functions
5288 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
5289 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
5290 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
5292 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
5293 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
5294 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
5296 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
5297 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
5299 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
5300 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
5301 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
5302 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
5304 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
5306 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
5307 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
5309 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
5310 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
5311 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
5312 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
5313 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
5316 'trim omit delimiter from result
5317 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
5318 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
5319 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
5321 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
5323 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
5324 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
5326 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
5327 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
5328 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
5329 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
5330 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
5332 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
5333 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
5334 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
5336 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
5337 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
5338 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
5339 above, and defaults to 'peek.
5341 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
5342 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
5344 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
5345 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
5347 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
5349 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
5350 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
5351 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
5352 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
5353 a delimiting character.
5354 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
5356 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
5357 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
5358 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
5359 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
5360 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
5361 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
5363 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
5364 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
5366 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
5367 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
5368 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
5370 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
5371 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
5372 the array to read and write.
5374 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
5375 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
5378 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
5380 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
5383 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
5384 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
5385 Values for COMMAND are:
5387 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
5388 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
5389 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
5390 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
5391 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
5392 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
5393 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
5394 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
5396 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
5398 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
5399 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
5400 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
5401 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
5402 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
5403 corresponding return set will be the same.
5405 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
5408 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
5409 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
5410 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
5411 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
5412 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
5413 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
5414 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
5415 special file being created.
5417 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
5418 clashing with various SCSH forks.
5420 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
5421 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
5422 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
5423 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
5424 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
5425 and originating address.
5427 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
5428 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
5429 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
5431 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
5434 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
5435 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
5438 (status:exit-val STATUS)
5439 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
5440 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
5441 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
5442 this function returns #f.
5444 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
5445 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
5446 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
5449 (status:term-sig STATUS)
5450 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
5451 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
5454 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
5455 a valid STATUS value.
5457 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
5459 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
5460 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
5462 Component Accessor Setter
5463 ========================= ============ ============
5464 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
5465 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
5466 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
5467 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
5468 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
5469 year tm:year set-tm:year
5470 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
5471 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
5472 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
5473 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
5474 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
5476 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
5477 describing the host system:
5480 ============================================== ================
5481 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
5482 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
5483 release level of the operating system utsname:release
5484 version level of the operating system utsname:version
5485 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
5487 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
5488 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
5489 system's user database:
5492 ====================== =================
5493 user name passwd:name
5494 user password passwd:passwd
5497 real name passwd:gecos
5498 home directory passwd:dir
5499 shell program passwd:shell
5501 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
5502 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
5503 system's group database:
5506 ======================= ============
5507 group name group:name
5508 group password group:passwd
5510 group members group:mem
5512 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
5513 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
5517 ========================= ===============
5518 official name of host hostent:name
5519 alias list hostent:aliases
5520 host address type hostent:addrtype
5521 length of address hostent:length
5522 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
5524 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
5525 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
5529 ========================= ===============
5530 official name of net netent:name
5531 alias list netent:aliases
5532 net number type netent:addrtype
5533 net number netent:net
5535 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
5536 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
5540 ========================= ===============
5541 official protocol name protoent:name
5542 alias list protoent:aliases
5543 protocol number protoent:proto
5545 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
5546 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
5550 ========================= ===============
5551 official service name servent:name
5552 alias list servent:aliases
5553 port number servent:port
5554 protocol to use servent:proto
5556 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
5557 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
5560 ======================================== ===============
5561 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
5562 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
5563 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
5564 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
5566 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
5567 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
5568 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
5570 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
5571 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
5573 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
5574 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
5576 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
5577 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
5579 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
5581 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
5583 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
5584 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
5585 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
5587 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
5588 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
5589 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
5590 return the remaining characters as a string.
5592 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
5593 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
5594 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
5596 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
5598 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5600 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
5603 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
5606 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
5607 and returns the array
5609 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
5610 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
5611 the user to interpret the data both ways.
5613 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5615 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
5616 symbol's value from C code:
5618 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
5619 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
5620 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
5621 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
5623 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
5624 without assigning them a value.
5626 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
5627 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
5628 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
5630 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
5631 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
5632 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
5634 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
5635 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
5637 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
5638 doesn't actually care about that.
5640 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
5641 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
5642 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
5644 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
5645 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
5646 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
5647 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
5648 which we have just created and initialized.
5650 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
5651 should one occur. We call it like this:
5652 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
5654 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
5655 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
5656 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
5657 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
5658 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
5659 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
5662 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
5663 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
5664 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
5665 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
5666 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
5667 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
5668 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
5671 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
5672 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
5673 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
5674 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
5675 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
5678 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
5679 scm_internal_catch, except:
5681 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
5682 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
5683 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
5684 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
5687 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
5688 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
5689 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
5691 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
5692 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
5693 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
5694 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
5697 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
5698 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
5699 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
5701 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
5702 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
5703 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
5704 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
5705 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
5707 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
5708 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
5709 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
5711 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
5712 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
5713 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
5715 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
5716 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
5718 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
5719 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
5720 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
5723 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
5724 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
5725 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
5726 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
5727 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
5728 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
5729 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
5732 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
5733 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
5735 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
5736 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
5737 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
5738 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
5739 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
5742 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
5743 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
5745 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
5746 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
5749 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
5750 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
5752 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5755 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
5756 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
5757 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
5758 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
5759 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
5760 given the following arguments:
5762 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
5764 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
5766 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
5768 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5771 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
5772 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
5773 command-line arguments.
5775 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
5776 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
5777 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
5778 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
5779 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
5780 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
5783 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5786 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
5787 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
5789 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
5790 rearranged slightly. They are now:
5792 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5793 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
5794 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
5795 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
5797 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5798 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
5800 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5801 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
5802 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
5803 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
5805 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5806 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
5808 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
5809 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
5811 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
5813 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
5814 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
5815 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
5818 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
5819 returns a port instead of an FD object.
5821 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
5822 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
5827 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
5830 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
5832 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
5833 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
5834 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
5835 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
5837 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
5839 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
5841 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
5842 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
5843 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
5844 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
5845 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
5846 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
5847 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
5848 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
5849 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
5850 for more information.
5852 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
5853 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
5855 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
5856 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
5857 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
5858 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
5859 following two lines at the top of the file:
5861 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5864 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
5865 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
5866 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
5868 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
5870 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5872 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
5875 (display (car args))
5876 (if (pair? (cdr args))
5878 (loop (cdr args)))))
5881 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
5882 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
5883 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
5884 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
5885 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
5886 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
5890 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
5893 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
5896 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
5898 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
5899 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
5900 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
5901 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
5902 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
5905 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
5906 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
5907 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
5908 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
5909 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
5912 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
5915 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
5916 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
5917 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
5920 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
5921 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
5922 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
5924 to see a backtrace, and
5925 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
5926 to see them by default.
5930 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
5932 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
5934 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
5935 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
5938 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
5939 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
5940 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
5941 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
5944 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
5945 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
5946 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
5947 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
5948 functions which inspired them.
5950 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
5951 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
5955 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
5957 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
5959 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
5960 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
5963 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
5964 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
5965 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
5967 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
5968 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
5969 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
5970 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
5971 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
5973 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
5975 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
5976 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
5977 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
5980 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
5983 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
5985 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
5986 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
5987 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
5988 above should serve their purposes.
5990 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
5991 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
5992 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
5993 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
5995 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
5998 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
5999 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
6000 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
6001 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
6003 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
6004 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
6005 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
6006 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
6008 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
6009 for the `read' function.
6012 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
6013 to that of `integer?'.
6015 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
6016 use the R4RS names for these functions.
6018 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
6019 it simply returns the object's property list.
6021 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
6022 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
6023 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
6024 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
6026 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
6028 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
6031 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
6033 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
6034 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
6036 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
6038 void (*main_func) (),
6041 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
6042 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
6043 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
6044 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
6045 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
6047 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
6048 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
6049 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
6050 know which arguments have been processed.
6052 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
6053 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
6054 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
6055 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
6056 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
6058 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
6059 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
6060 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
6061 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
6062 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
6063 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
6064 people from making that mistake.
6066 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
6067 convenient ways to override these when desired.
6069 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
6071 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
6075 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
6078 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
6079 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
6080 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
6081 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
6084 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
6085 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
6086 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
6087 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
6090 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
6091 have been added to the Guile library.
6093 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
6094 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
6095 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
6098 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
6099 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
6100 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
6102 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
6103 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
6104 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
6105 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
6106 argument from the list.
6109 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
6112 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
6113 null-terminated string, and returns it.
6115 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
6116 to a Scheme port object.
6118 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
6119 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
6124 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
6126 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
6127 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
6128 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
6129 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
6130 code as a special datatype.
6132 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
6133 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
6134 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
6135 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
6136 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
6139 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
6140 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
6141 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
6142 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
6143 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
6145 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
6148 Copyright information:
6150 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
6152 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
6153 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
6154 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
6155 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
6157 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
6158 of this document, or of portions of it,
6159 under the above conditions, provided also that they
6160 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
6165 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"