1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
8 (During the 1.9 series, we will keep an incremental NEWS for the latest
9 prerelease, and a full NEWS corresponding to 1.8 -> 2.0.)
11 Changes in 1.9.3 (since the 1.9.2 prerelease):
14 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
16 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
17 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
18 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
20 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
21 code easier and less error-prone.
23 ** Files loaded with `load' will now be compiled automatically.
25 As with files loaded via `primitive-load-path', `load' will also compile
26 its target if autocompilation is enabled, and a fresh compiled file is
29 There are two points of difference to note, however. First, `load' does
30 not search `GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH' for the file; it only looks in the
31 autocompilation directory, normally a subdirectory of ~/.cache/guile.
33 Secondly, autocompilation also applies to files loaded via the -l
34 command-line argument -- so the user may experience a slight slowdown
35 the first time they run a Guile script, as the script is autocompiled.
37 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
39 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
40 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
41 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
42 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
43 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
46 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
47 code. This use is now discouraged.
49 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
51 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
52 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
53 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
56 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
57 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
58 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
60 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
62 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
64 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
65 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
66 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
67 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
69 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
71 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
72 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
75 ** Unicode symbol support
77 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
79 ** New readline history functions
81 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
82 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
83 History library functions.
85 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
86 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
88 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
91 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
92 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
93 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
94 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
96 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
98 ** scm_array_p has one argument, not two
100 Use of the second argument produced a deprecation warning, so it is
101 unlikely that any code out there actually used this functionality.
103 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
105 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
106 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
108 ** `libguile-i18n' has been merged into `libguile'
110 The C support code for `(ice-9 i18n)', which used to be in
111 `libguile-i18n', is now part of `libguile'.
113 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
115 ** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes
117 Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information.
121 Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series):
123 * New modules (see the manual for details)
125 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
126 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
127 ** `(rnrs bytevector)', the R6RS bytevector API
128 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
129 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
131 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
133 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
135 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
136 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
138 ** The stack limit is now initialized from the environment.
140 If getrlimit(2) is available and a stack limit is set, Guile will set
141 its stack limit to 80% of the rlimit. Otherwise the limit is 160000
142 words, a four-fold increase from the earlier default limit.
144 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
145 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
147 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
148 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
149 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
152 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
154 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. While
155 it is self-documenting to an extent, the new REPL has not yet been
156 documented in the manual. This will be fixed before 2.0.
158 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
160 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
163 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
165 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
167 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
168 not apply to the compiler.
170 ** Files loaded with `primitive-load-path' will now be compiled
173 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
174 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
175 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
177 Note that this mechanism depends on preservation of the .scm and .go
178 modification times; if the .scm or .go files are moved after
179 installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
182 Autocompiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
183 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
184 will be created if needed.
186 To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
187 variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line.
189 Note that there is currently a bug here: automatic compilation will
190 sometimes be attempted when it shouldn't.
192 For example, the old (lang elisp) modules are meant to be interpreted,
193 not compiled. This bug will be fixed before 2.0. FIXME 2.0: Should say
194 something here about module-transformer called for compile.
196 ** Files loaded with `load' will now be compiled automatically.
198 As with files loaded via `primitive-load-path', `load' will also compile
199 its target if autocompilation is enabled, and a fresh compiled file is
202 There are two points of difference to note, however. First, `load' does
203 not search `GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH' for the file; it only looks in the
204 autocompilation directory, normally a subdirectory of ~/.cache/guile.
206 Secondly, autocompilation also applies to files loaded via the -l
207 command-line argument -- so the user may experience a slight slowdown
208 the first time they run a Guile script, as the script is autocompiled.
210 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
212 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
213 in the next prerelease.
215 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
217 ** BUG: (procedure-property func 'arity) does not work on compiled
220 This will be fixed one way or another before 2.0.
222 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
223 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
224 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments',
226 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
227 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
228 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
229 procedures' docstrings for more information.
231 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
232 combining arity and formals. For example:
234 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
235 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
237 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
240 ** Deprecated: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
242 These procedures will not work with syncase expansion, and indeed are
243 not used in the normal course of Guile. They are still used by the old
244 Emacs Lisp support, however.
246 ** New language: ECMAScript
248 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
249 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
250 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
251 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
253 ** New language: Brainfuck
255 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
256 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
257 languages. See the manual for details, or
258 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
259 Brainfuck language itself.
261 ** Defmacros may now have docstrings.
263 Indeed, any macro may have a docstring. `object-documentation' from
264 `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to retrieve the docstring, once you
265 have a macro value -- but see the above note about first-class macros.
266 Docstrings are associated with the syntax transformer procedures.
268 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
271 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
273 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
274 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
277 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
278 (define (helper x) ...)
280 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
282 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
285 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
286 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
288 ** New function, `procedure-module'
290 While useful on its own, `procedure-module' is used by psyntax on syntax
291 transformers to determine the module in which to scope introduced
294 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
296 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. It is still
297 missing documentation, however.
299 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
302 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
303 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
305 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
307 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
309 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
311 It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g.
312 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate
313 feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the
314 default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0
315 in response to user feedback.
317 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
319 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
320 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
323 (define (helper x) ...)
324 (define-macro (foo bar)
327 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
330 (define (helper x) ...)
331 (define-macro (foo bar)
332 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
334 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
338 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
340 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
342 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
349 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
350 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
353 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
355 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
359 (define-macro (ref x) x)
362 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
363 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
364 macros before code that uses them.
366 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
369 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
371 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
372 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
373 (double-literal 2) => 4
375 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
376 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
377 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
379 (eval-when (load compile eval)
380 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
381 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
382 (double-literal 2) => 4
384 See the (currently missing) documentation for eval-when for more
387 ** New variable, %pre-modules-transformer
389 Need to document this one some more.
391 ** Temporarily removed functions: `macroexpand', `macroexpand-1'
393 `macroexpand' will be added back before 2.0. It is unclear how to
394 implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though PLT Scheme does prove
397 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
399 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
400 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
401 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
403 ** Incompatible change to #'
405 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
406 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
407 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
408 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
410 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
412 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
415 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
416 works (with compiled procedures)
418 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
419 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
420 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
421 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
423 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
424 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
425 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
426 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
427 number of stack frames.
429 ** backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
430 active in the current continuation
432 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
433 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
434 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
435 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
437 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
438 through to the expanded code
440 This should result in better backtraces.
442 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
444 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
446 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
448 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
449 default. If there is sufficient demand, this syntax can be supported
452 ** All modules have names now
454 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
455 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
456 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
457 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
459 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
461 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
462 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
463 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
465 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
466 values to the expected number
468 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
469 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
470 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
472 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
473 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
474 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
475 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
477 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
478 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
479 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
481 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
484 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
486 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
488 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
489 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
490 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
491 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
492 the interpreter would proceed.
494 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
495 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
496 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
497 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
499 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
501 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
502 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
503 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
504 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
505 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
506 you to contact the Guile developers.
508 ** psyntax is now the default expander
510 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
511 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
514 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
515 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
516 code in question was memoized.
518 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
519 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
520 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
521 `x432' instead of `x'.
523 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
524 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
525 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
526 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
528 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
530 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
531 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
532 `sc-expand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
535 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
536 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
537 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
538 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
540 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
541 by nonhygienic macros.
543 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
544 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
547 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
548 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
549 (define-macro (ref x)
556 (define-syntax bind-x
558 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
559 (define-macro (ref x)
563 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
564 as code is ported over from defmacros to syntax-case, it is possible to
565 run into situations like this. In the future, Guile will probably port
566 its `while' macro to syntax-case, which makes this issue one to know
569 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
571 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
572 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
574 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
575 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
578 This decision may be revisited before the 2.0 release. Feedback welcome
579 to guile-devel@gnu.org (subscription required) or bug-guile@gnu.org (no
580 subscription required).
582 ** Unicode characters
584 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
585 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
586 probably be introduced at some point.
590 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
591 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
592 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
594 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
595 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
596 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
597 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
601 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
603 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
605 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
606 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
607 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
608 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
609 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
612 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
613 code. This use is now discouraged.
615 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
617 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
618 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
619 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
622 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
623 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
624 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
626 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
628 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
630 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
631 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
632 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
633 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
635 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
637 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
638 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
641 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
643 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
644 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
645 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
648 ** EBCDIC support is removed
650 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
651 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
652 and was unmaintained.
654 ** New macro type: syncase-macro
656 XXX Need to decide whether to document this for 2.0, probably should:
657 make-syncase-macro, make-extended-syncase-macro, macro-type,
658 syncase-macro-type, syncase-macro-binding
660 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
662 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
665 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
667 This slightly improves program startup times.
669 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
671 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
673 ** Fix bad interaction between `false-if-exception' and stack-call.
675 Exceptions thrown by `false-if-exception' were erronously causing the
676 stack to be saved, causing later errors to show the incorrectly-saved
677 backtrace. This has been fixed.
679 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
681 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
683 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
685 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
687 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
689 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
691 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
693 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
695 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
696 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
697 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
699 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
701 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
702 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
704 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
705 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
707 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
710 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
712 * Changes to the C interface
714 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
716 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
717 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
718 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
720 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
721 code easier and less error-prone.
723 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
725 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
727 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
730 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
731 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
733 ** scm_primitive_load_path has additional argument, exception_on_error
735 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
737 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
739 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
740 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
742 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
744 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
745 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
747 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
749 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
750 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
751 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
752 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
754 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
756 ** scm_array_p has one argument, not two
758 Use of the second argument produced a deprecation warning, so it is
759 unlikely that any code out there actually used this functionality.
761 * Changes to the distribution
763 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
765 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
766 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
769 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
771 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
772 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
774 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
776 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
777 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
778 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
781 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
783 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
784 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
786 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
788 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
789 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
791 ** New dependency: libgc
793 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
795 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
797 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
798 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
802 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
806 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
807 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
808 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
811 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
813 * New modules (see the manual for details)
815 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
819 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
820 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
821 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
822 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
823 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
824 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
825 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
826 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
827 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
828 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
829 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
831 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
833 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
834 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
835 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
838 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
841 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
843 * New features (see the manual for details)
845 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
847 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
849 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
850 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
851 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
853 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
855 * Changes to the distribution
857 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
859 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
860 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
862 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
864 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
865 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
870 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
871 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
872 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
873 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
874 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
875 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
876 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
877 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
878 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
879 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
880 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
881 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
882 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
883 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
885 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
886 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
887 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
888 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
889 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
892 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
894 * Infrastructure changes
896 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
898 The new repository can be accessed using
899 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
900 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
902 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
904 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
906 * New modules (see the manual for details)
910 * New features (see the manual for details)
912 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
913 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
914 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
916 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
917 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
918 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
919 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
921 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
923 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
924 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
925 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
929 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
930 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
932 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
933 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
935 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
936 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
938 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
939 lead to a stack overflow.
941 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
942 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
943 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
944 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
945 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
946 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
947 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
948 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
949 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
950 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
951 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
952 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
953 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
954 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
955 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
956 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
959 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
963 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
964 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
965 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
966 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
967 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
968 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
969 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
970 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
971 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
972 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
973 system and library calls.
974 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
975 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
976 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
977 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
978 uniform vectors on AIX.
979 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
980 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
981 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
982 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
983 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
985 * New modules (see the manual for details)
989 * Documentation fixes and improvements
991 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
993 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
994 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
996 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
998 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
1000 * Changes to the distribution
1002 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
1004 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
1005 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
1006 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
1008 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
1010 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
1013 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
1015 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1022 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
1023 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
1024 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
1025 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
1026 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
1027 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
1028 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
1030 * Implementation improvements
1032 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
1033 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
1036 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
1038 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1040 ** set-program-arguments
1043 * Incompatible changes
1045 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
1047 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
1048 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
1049 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
1050 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
1055 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
1056 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
1057 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
1058 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
1059 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
1060 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
1062 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
1063 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
1064 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
1065 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
1066 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
1067 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
1068 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
1069 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
1070 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
1071 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
1072 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
1073 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
1074 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
1075 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
1076 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
1077 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
1080 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
1082 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
1084 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1086 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
1087 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
1088 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
1089 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
1090 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
1091 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
1099 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
1101 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
1103 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
1105 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
1107 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
1109 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
1111 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
1112 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
1113 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
1115 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
1117 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
1119 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
1120 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
1122 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
1124 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
1125 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
1127 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
1129 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
1131 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
1133 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
1135 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
1137 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
1139 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
1141 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
1143 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
1145 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
1146 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
1147 file was on a different device.
1150 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
1152 * Changes to the distribution
1154 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
1156 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
1158 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
1160 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
1162 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
1164 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
1167 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
1169 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
1170 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
1171 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
1172 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
1173 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
1174 items like the versioned share directory name
1175 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
1177 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
1178 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
1179 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
1180 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
1181 with each micro release during a stable series.
1183 ** Thread implementation has changed.
1185 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
1186 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
1187 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
1188 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
1189 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
1192 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
1193 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
1194 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
1195 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
1198 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
1199 in which case "null" threads are used.
1201 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
1202 "Blocking", and others.
1204 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
1206 This is a milder form of deprecation.
1208 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
1209 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
1210 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
1211 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
1212 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
1214 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
1215 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
1217 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
1219 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
1220 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
1222 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
1225 This SRFI is always available.
1227 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
1229 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
1230 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
1231 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
1232 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
1235 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
1237 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
1238 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
1239 parameters without currying.
1241 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
1243 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
1244 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
1246 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
1247 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
1250 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
1251 with a renaming import, for example.
1253 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
1255 The official version is good enough now.
1257 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
1259 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
1260 provided. Use 'make html'.
1262 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
1264 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
1265 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
1266 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
1267 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
1269 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
1271 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
1274 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1276 ** New command line option `-L'.
1278 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
1280 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
1282 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
1283 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
1285 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
1287 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
1288 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
1290 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
1292 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
1293 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
1296 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
1299 (define-module (demo)
1303 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
1306 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1308 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
1310 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
1311 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
1312 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
1314 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
1316 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
1317 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
1319 ** New function hashx-remove!
1321 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
1323 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
1324 barriers and dynamic states.
1326 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
1327 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
1328 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
1331 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
1332 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
1333 Barriers" in the manual.
1335 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
1336 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
1338 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
1340 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
1341 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
1342 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
1343 variable %load-path.
1345 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
1347 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
1348 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
1350 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
1351 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
1352 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
1354 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
1355 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
1357 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
1358 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
1359 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
1361 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
1362 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
1363 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
1366 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
1367 substrings and read-only strings.
1369 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
1370 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
1373 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
1375 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
1384 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
1385 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
1386 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
1388 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
1389 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
1390 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
1391 on an ANSI terminal:
1393 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
1394 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
1397 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
1399 See the manual for details.
1401 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
1403 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
1406 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
1408 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
1409 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
1410 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
1411 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
1413 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
1414 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
1415 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
1418 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
1420 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
1421 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
1432 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
1436 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
1441 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
1445 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
1449 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
1452 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
1453 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
1454 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
1455 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
1457 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
1458 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
1461 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
1464 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
1468 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
1470 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
1471 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
1472 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
1475 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
1478 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
1480 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
1483 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
1484 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
1487 (define-module (foo)
1492 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
1493 has been detected is to
1495 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
1496 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
1497 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
1500 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
1503 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
1505 to your .guile init file.
1507 ** New define-module option: :replace
1509 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
1512 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
1513 for the core binding `format'.
1515 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
1517 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
1518 a prefix to all imported bindings.
1520 (define-module (foo)
1521 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
1523 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
1526 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
1528 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
1529 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
1530 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
1532 ** New function: effective-version
1534 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1535 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1536 to the distribution" above.
1538 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
1540 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
1541 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
1543 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
1545 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
1546 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
1548 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
1550 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
1551 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
1554 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
1556 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
1558 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
1560 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
1561 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
1562 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
1565 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
1566 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
1567 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
1568 'system-async-mark'.
1570 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
1571 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
1573 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
1574 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
1575 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
1578 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
1580 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
1581 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
1584 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
1585 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
1587 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
1588 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
1589 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
1590 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
1591 level for the current thread.
1593 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
1595 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
1597 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
1598 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
1601 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
1603 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
1605 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
1608 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
1610 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
1613 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
1614 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
1615 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
1617 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
1618 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
1619 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
1620 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
1631 ERROR: Numerical overflow
1633 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
1636 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
1638 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
1639 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
1640 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
1651 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
1653 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
1654 them is also done exactly, of course:
1659 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
1660 for exact arguments.
1662 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
1663 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
1665 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
1667 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
1668 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
1669 equal to a floating point number. For example:
1671 (inexact->exact 1.234)
1672 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
1674 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
1676 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
1679 ** New function 'rationalize'.
1681 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
1682 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
1684 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
1687 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
1688 result when both its arguments are exact.
1690 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
1692 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
1693 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
1694 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
1696 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
1698 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
1699 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
1700 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
1702 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
1705 ** pretty-print has more options.
1707 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
1708 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
1709 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
1711 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
1713 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
1714 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
1715 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
1717 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
1719 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
1720 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
1722 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
1724 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
1725 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
1728 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
1730 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
1731 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
1732 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
1733 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
1734 without the soft port blocking.
1736 ** Deprecated: undefine
1738 There is no replacement for undefine.
1740 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
1741 have been discouraged.
1743 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
1744 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
1745 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
1748 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
1750 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
1752 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
1753 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
1754 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
1755 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
1758 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
1759 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
1760 be removed in the next major Guile release.
1762 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
1764 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
1765 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
1766 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
1767 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
1768 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
1769 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
1771 * Changes to the C interface
1773 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
1774 take a 'delete' function argument.
1776 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
1777 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
1779 This is an incompatible change.
1781 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
1783 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
1784 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
1785 --disable-deprecated.
1787 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
1789 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
1790 Scheme values has been added.
1792 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
1793 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
1796 - int scm_is_* (...)
1798 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
1799 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
1801 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
1803 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
1804 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
1807 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
1809 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
1810 scm_from_int for ints.
1812 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
1813 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
1814 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
1816 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
1818 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
1819 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
1820 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
1823 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
1825 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
1827 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
1829 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
1830 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
1831 following alternatives.
1833 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
1834 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
1835 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
1836 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
1838 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
1839 do the validating for you.
1841 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
1842 have been discouraged.
1844 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
1845 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
1848 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
1850 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
1851 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
1854 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
1856 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
1859 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
1862 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
1864 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
1865 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
1867 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
1868 scm_truncate_number should have.
1870 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
1871 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
1873 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
1876 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
1877 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
1878 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
1880 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
1881 easier to use from C.
1883 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
1884 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
1886 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
1887 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
1888 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
1891 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
1892 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
1893 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
1894 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
1897 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
1898 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
1899 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
1900 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
1901 and is thus quite efficient.
1903 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
1905 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
1906 about the character encoding.
1908 Replace according to the following table:
1910 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
1911 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
1912 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
1913 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
1914 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
1915 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
1916 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
1917 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
1918 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
1920 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
1921 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
1923 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
1925 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
1926 now also available to C code.
1928 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
1930 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
1931 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
1932 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
1934 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
1937 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
1939 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
1940 unceremoniously removed.
1942 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
1943 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
1944 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
1946 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
1947 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
1948 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1949 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1950 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
1951 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
1954 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
1956 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
1957 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
1958 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
1959 manual for more details.
1961 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1962 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1964 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
1965 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
1966 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1968 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
1970 Migrate according to the following table:
1972 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
1973 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
1974 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
1975 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
1976 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
1977 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
1978 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
1980 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
1981 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
1982 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
1983 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
1984 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
1985 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
1986 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
1988 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
1990 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
1991 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
1993 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
1994 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
1995 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
1996 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
1998 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
2000 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
2001 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
2002 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
2004 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
2005 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
2007 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
2008 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
2009 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
2010 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
2012 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
2014 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
2015 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
2016 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
2017 prevent a potential memory leak:
2024 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
2026 mem = scm_malloc (100);
2027 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
2029 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
2030 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
2037 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
2038 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
2042 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
2044 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
2046 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
2047 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
2048 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
2050 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2051 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
2053 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
2055 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
2057 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
2058 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
2059 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
2061 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
2062 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
2064 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
2065 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
2066 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
2067 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
2070 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
2072 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
2073 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2074 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
2076 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
2078 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
2079 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
2081 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
2083 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
2084 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
2086 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
2088 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
2089 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
2090 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
2092 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
2094 You should not have used them.
2096 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
2098 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
2099 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
2101 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
2103 This macro is not intended for public use.
2105 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
2107 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
2109 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
2111 Use scm_is_real instead.
2113 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
2115 Use scm_is_complex instead.
2117 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
2119 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
2120 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
2122 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
2123 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
2125 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
2126 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
2128 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
2130 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
2133 ** New function: scm_effective_version
2135 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2136 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2137 to the distribution" above.
2139 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
2141 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
2142 arguments are now passed directly:
2144 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
2146 This is an incompatible change.
2148 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
2150 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
2151 function in the init section.
2153 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
2155 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
2157 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
2158 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
2159 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
2160 stays roughly constant.
2162 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
2163 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
2164 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
2165 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
2166 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
2169 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
2170 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
2171 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
2172 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
2174 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
2175 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
2176 objects for every type.
2179 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
2181 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
2183 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
2185 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
2186 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
2187 initializes a new cell (see below).
2189 ** New functions for memory management
2191 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
2192 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
2193 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
2194 cause aborts in long running programs.
2196 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
2197 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
2199 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
2200 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
2201 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
2202 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
2203 details and for upgrading instructions.
2205 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
2206 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
2207 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
2209 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
2211 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
2212 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
2213 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
2214 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
2215 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
2217 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
2218 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
2219 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
2221 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
2222 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
2224 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
2226 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
2227 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
2228 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
2229 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
2230 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
2232 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
2234 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
2237 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
2239 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
2241 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
2243 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
2244 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
2246 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
2248 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
2249 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
2251 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
2252 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
2254 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
2256 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
2258 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
2259 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
2260 blocking it is not well defined.
2262 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
2264 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
2265 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
2266 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
2267 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
2268 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
2269 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
2270 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
2271 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
2272 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
2273 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
2274 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2275 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
2276 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
2277 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
2278 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
2279 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
2280 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
2281 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2282 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
2283 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
2284 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
2285 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
2286 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
2287 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
2288 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
2289 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
2290 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
2291 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
2292 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
2293 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
2294 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
2296 * Changes to bundled modules
2300 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
2301 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
2302 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
2303 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
2304 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
2307 Changes since Guile 1.4:
2309 * Changes to the distribution
2311 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
2313 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
2315 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
2316 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
2317 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
2318 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
2319 indicate major changes in Guile.
2321 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
2322 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
2323 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
2324 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
2326 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
2327 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
2328 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
2329 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
2330 micro version number.
2332 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
2334 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
2336 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
2337 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
2339 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
2341 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
2342 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
2343 See INSTALL and README for more information.
2345 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
2347 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
2348 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
2349 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
2352 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
2354 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
2357 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
2359 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
2360 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
2362 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
2364 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
2365 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
2368 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
2370 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
2373 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
2376 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
2378 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
2380 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
2381 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
2382 open-output-string, get-output-string.
2384 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
2386 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
2388 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
2391 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
2393 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
2395 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
2397 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
2398 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
2399 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
2401 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
2403 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
2405 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
2406 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
2415 See README there for more info.
2417 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
2418 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
2421 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
2423 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
2425 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
2427 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
2428 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
2429 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
2431 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
2433 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
2434 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
2435 to be named `and-let*', of course.
2437 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
2438 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
2440 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
2443 (oop goops describe)
2445 (oop goops active-slot)
2446 (oop goops composite-slot)
2448 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
2449 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
2450 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
2452 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
2454 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
2455 in the default environment:
2457 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
2458 %read-line write-line
2460 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
2461 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
2463 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
2465 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
2468 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
2469 can be used for similar functionality.
2471 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
2473 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
2474 it defines two procedures:
2476 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
2478 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
2479 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
2480 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
2483 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
2485 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
2486 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
2487 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
2488 write large strings.
2490 ** New module (ice-9 match)
2492 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
2493 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
2495 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
2497 for complete documentation.
2499 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
2501 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
2502 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
2503 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
2504 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
2506 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
2507 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
2511 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
2512 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
2513 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
2516 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
2519 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
2520 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
2522 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
2523 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
2526 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
2529 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
2531 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
2533 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2535 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
2537 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
2538 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
2539 Scheme programs easier.
2541 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
2542 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
2543 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
2544 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
2545 `cond-expand' when using this option.
2548 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
2549 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
2551 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
2554 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
2556 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
2557 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
2558 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
2561 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2563 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
2565 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
2566 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
2567 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
2568 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
2569 was also ASCII, for example.
2571 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
2573 tag - no replacement.
2574 fseek - replaced by seek.
2575 list* - replaced by cons*.
2577 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
2581 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
2582 (define m (make-safe-module))
2583 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
2584 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
2585 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
2587 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
2589 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
2590 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
2591 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
2593 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
2595 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
2596 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
2597 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
2598 from the issues related to the module system.
2600 *** New function: load-extension
2602 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
2604 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
2606 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
2607 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
2608 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
2610 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
2612 This function registers a initialization function for use by
2613 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
2614 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
2615 support dynamic linking).
2617 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
2619 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
2620 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
2621 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
2622 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
2625 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
2626 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
2627 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
2628 library and initialize it explicitly.
2630 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
2631 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
2633 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
2635 (define-module (foo bar))
2637 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
2639 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
2641 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
2642 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
2644 (scheme-report-environment 5)
2645 (null-environment 5)
2646 (interaction-environment)
2652 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
2654 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
2655 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
2656 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
2657 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
2659 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
2660 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
2661 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
2662 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
2663 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
2664 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
2665 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
2666 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
2667 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
2668 one eval to the next.
2670 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
2671 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
2672 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
2673 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
2674 subforms are at the top-level as well.
2676 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
2677 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
2678 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
2679 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
2680 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
2681 used in a lexical environment.
2683 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
2684 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
2685 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
2686 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
2687 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
2688 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
2690 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
2692 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
2693 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
2694 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
2695 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
2696 new facilities: selection and renaming.
2698 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
2699 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
2700 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
2702 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
2703 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
2705 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
2706 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
2707 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
2709 (remove-if . zonk-y)
2710 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
2712 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
2713 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
2714 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
2715 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
2718 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
2719 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
2720 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
2721 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
2723 (remove-if . zonk-y)
2724 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
2725 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
2727 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
2728 ;; and all four by upcasing.
2729 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
2730 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
2731 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
2733 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
2735 (remove-if . zonk-y)
2736 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
2737 :renamer upcase-symbol))
2739 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
2740 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
2741 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
2743 See manual for more info.
2745 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
2747 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
2748 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
2749 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
2751 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
2753 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
2754 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
2755 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
2757 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
2758 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
2759 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
2760 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
2762 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
2764 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
2765 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
2767 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
2768 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
2769 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
2770 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
2771 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
2774 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
2775 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
2776 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
2777 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
2778 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
2779 successful and #f if it wasn't.
2781 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
2782 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
2783 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
2784 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
2785 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
2787 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
2788 objects are usually permanent.
2790 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
2791 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
2793 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
2795 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
2796 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
2799 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
2803 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
2808 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
2810 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
2811 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
2812 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
2813 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
2815 ** New function `make-object-property'
2817 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
2818 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
2822 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
2823 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
2827 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
2828 source properties eventually.
2830 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
2832 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
2833 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
2834 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
2836 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
2837 will be removed in the next release.
2839 ** New define-module option: pure
2841 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
2846 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
2849 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
2851 Export names NAME1 ...
2853 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
2854 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
2858 (define-module (foo)
2860 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
2863 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
2868 ** New function: object->string OBJ
2870 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
2872 ** New function: port? X
2874 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
2875 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
2877 ** New function: file-port?
2879 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
2881 ** New function: port-for-each proc
2883 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
2884 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
2885 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
2886 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
2887 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
2889 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
2891 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
2892 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
2893 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
2894 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
2895 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
2898 ** New function: close-fdes fd
2900 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
2901 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
2902 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
2903 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
2906 ** New function: crypt password salt
2908 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
2911 ** New function: chroot path
2913 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
2915 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
2917 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
2920 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
2922 Get or set the priority of the running process.
2924 ** New function: getpass prompt
2926 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
2929 ** New function: flock file operation
2931 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
2933 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
2935 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
2938 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
2940 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
2941 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
2942 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
2943 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
2944 of the temporary file.
2946 ** New function: open-input-string string
2948 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
2949 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
2950 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
2952 ** New function: open-output-string
2954 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
2955 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
2957 ** New function: get-output-string
2959 Return the contents of an output string port.
2961 ** New function: identity
2963 Return the argument.
2965 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
2966 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
2968 ** New function: inet-pton family address
2970 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
2971 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
2972 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2975 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
2976 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
2978 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
2980 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
2981 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
2982 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2985 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
2986 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
2987 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
2991 Use `identity' instead.
2997 ** Deprecated: return-it
3001 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
3003 Use `string-length' instead.
3005 ** Deprecated: flags
3007 Use `logior' instead.
3009 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
3011 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
3012 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
3013 port-for-each is more flexible.
3015 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
3016 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
3017 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
3019 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
3021 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
3023 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
3025 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
3027 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
3029 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
3030 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
3032 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
3033 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
3035 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
3036 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
3038 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
3040 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
3041 Removed function: builtin-bindings
3043 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
3044 Use module system operations for all variables.
3046 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
3048 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
3051 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
3053 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
3054 The following bugs have been fixed:
3056 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
3057 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
3060 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
3061 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
3062 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
3064 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
3065 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
3067 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
3068 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
3071 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
3072 The expansion used to be like so:
3074 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
3076 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
3078 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
3080 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
3081 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
3083 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
3085 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
3086 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
3087 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
3091 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
3092 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
3094 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
3099 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
3100 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
3102 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
3103 and `d', other keywords allowed.
3104 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
3106 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
3109 * Changes to the C interface
3111 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
3113 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
3114 with "_t". What a concept.
3116 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
3118 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
3120 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
3124 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
3125 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
3127 *** C Functions removed
3129 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
3130 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
3131 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
3132 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
3133 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
3134 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
3135 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
3137 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
3139 Use scm_mem2string instead.
3141 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
3143 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
3145 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
3146 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
3148 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
3150 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
3153 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
3155 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
3157 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
3159 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
3160 Evaluation" in the manual.
3162 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
3164 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
3165 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
3167 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
3169 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
3170 Constructors" in the manual.
3172 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
3174 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
3175 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
3177 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
3179 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
3181 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
3182 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
3183 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
3185 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
3187 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
3189 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
3190 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
3191 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
3194 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
3196 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
3198 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
3199 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
3201 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
3203 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
3204 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
3205 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
3206 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
3208 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
3209 scm_primitive_property_ref
3210 scm_primitive_property_set_x
3211 scm_primitive_property_del_x
3213 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
3214 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
3216 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
3218 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
3219 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
3220 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
3221 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
3223 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
3225 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
3226 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
3227 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
3228 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
3229 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
3230 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
3231 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
3233 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
3234 scm_remember_upto_here
3236 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
3238 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
3240 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
3241 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
3243 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
3245 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
3247 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
3249 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
3251 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
3253 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
3254 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
3255 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
3256 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
3257 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
3258 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
3260 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
3262 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
3264 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
3265 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
3266 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
3268 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
3270 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
3271 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
3272 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
3274 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
3276 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
3277 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
3280 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
3283 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
3284 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
3287 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
3289 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
3291 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
3293 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
3295 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
3297 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
3299 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
3300 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
3301 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
3302 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3303 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
3304 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
3305 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
3306 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3307 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
3308 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
3309 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
3310 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
3311 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
3312 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
3313 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
3315 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
3316 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
3317 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
3318 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
3319 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
3320 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
3321 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
3322 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
3323 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
3324 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
3325 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
3326 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
3327 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
3328 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
3329 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
3330 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
3331 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
3332 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
3333 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
3334 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
3335 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
3336 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
3337 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
3338 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
3339 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
3340 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
3341 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
3342 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
3343 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
3345 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
3347 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
3349 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
3350 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
3352 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
3354 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
3356 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
3358 Use scm_string_hash instead.
3360 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
3362 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
3364 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
3366 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
3368 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
3371 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
3372 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
3374 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
3376 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
3378 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
3380 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
3382 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
3384 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
3386 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
3388 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
3391 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
3393 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
3395 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
3397 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
3398 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
3400 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
3401 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
3403 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
3405 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
3406 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
3407 scm_module_define, scm_define.
3409 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
3411 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
3413 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
3414 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
3416 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
3417 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
3418 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
3419 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
3421 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
3422 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
3423 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
3425 Use the new ones from above instead.
3427 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
3429 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
3430 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
3431 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
3433 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
3434 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
3436 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
3437 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
3440 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
3441 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
3443 Use the new functions instead.
3445 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
3448 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
3450 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
3452 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
3455 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
3457 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
3460 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
3462 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
3465 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
3466 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
3467 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
3469 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
3471 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
3472 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
3474 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
3475 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
3476 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
3477 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
3480 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
3482 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
3483 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
3484 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
3485 inexact for an exact.
3487 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
3488 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
3489 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
3492 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
3493 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
3494 accept an inexact argument.
3496 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
3497 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
3499 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
3502 ** New number validation macros:
3503 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
3507 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
3509 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
3510 scm_unprotect_object.
3512 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
3514 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
3516 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
3519 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
3521 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
3525 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
3527 * Changes to the distribution
3529 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
3531 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
3532 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
3533 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
3534 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
3535 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
3536 obtain these programs.
3537 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
3538 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
3540 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
3541 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
3542 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
3543 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
3544 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
3546 However, this approach means that minor differences between
3547 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
3548 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
3549 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
3553 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
3556 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
3557 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
3558 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
3559 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
3561 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
3563 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
3565 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
3566 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
3568 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
3569 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
3571 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
3572 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
3574 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
3575 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
3576 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
3577 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
3579 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
3581 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
3585 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
3586 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
3588 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
3590 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
3591 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
3593 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
3594 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
3595 number of objects of that kind.
3597 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
3599 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
3600 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
3601 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
3602 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
3603 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
3605 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
3607 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
3609 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
3611 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
3614 ** New module (ice-9 time)
3616 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
3618 ** New module (ice-9 history)
3620 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
3622 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3624 ** New command line option --debug
3626 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
3628 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
3630 ** New help facility
3632 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
3633 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
3634 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
3635 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
3636 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
3637 (help) gives this text
3639 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
3640 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
3642 Examples: (help help)
3644 (help "output-string")
3646 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
3648 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
3650 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
3651 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
3654 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
3655 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
3656 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
3659 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
3660 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
3661 use absolute filenames when possible.
3663 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
3664 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
3665 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
3668 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
3670 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
3671 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
3672 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
3673 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
3675 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
3677 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
3679 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
3680 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
3681 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
3683 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
3684 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
3685 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
3687 (read-enable 'positions)
3688 (debug-enable 'debug)
3690 ** Backtraces in scripts
3692 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
3696 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
3698 at the top of the script.
3700 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
3701 The second enables backtraces.)
3703 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
3705 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
3706 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
3707 substantially faster than before.
3709 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
3710 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
3712 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
3713 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
3715 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
3717 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
3718 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
3719 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
3721 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
3722 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
3723 when this hook is run in the future.
3725 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
3726 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
3728 ** Improvements to garbage collector
3730 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
3731 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
3734 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
3735 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
3736 more and more memory for certain programs.)
3738 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
3739 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
3741 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
3742 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
3744 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
3745 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
3746 in order not to need further allocation.)
3748 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
3751 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
3752 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
3753 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
3754 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
3756 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
3758 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
3761 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
3763 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
3766 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
3767 GC in percent of total heap size
3770 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
3771 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
3773 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
3775 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
3776 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
3778 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
3780 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
3781 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
3783 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
3785 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
3786 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
3790 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
3791 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
3793 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
3795 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3797 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
3799 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
3801 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
3803 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
3804 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
3806 (simple-format port message . args)
3807 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
3808 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
3809 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
3810 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
3811 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
3812 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
3813 Does not add a trailing newline."
3815 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
3817 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
3818 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
3820 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
3821 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
3823 ** Deprecated: list*
3825 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
3827 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
3829 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
3830 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
3832 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
3833 is returned as result.
3835 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
3837 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
3839 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
3841 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
3842 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
3845 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
3847 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
3849 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
3850 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
3852 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3854 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
3856 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
3858 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3860 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
3862 Thanks to Greg Badros!
3864 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3866 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3867 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
3868 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
3870 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
3873 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
3875 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
3876 the readability of argument checking.
3878 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
3880 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
3882 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
3884 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
3885 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
3886 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
3887 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
3888 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
3889 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
3890 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
3892 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
3894 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
3896 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
3897 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
3899 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
3901 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
3902 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
3905 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
3907 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
3908 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
3909 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
3911 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
3912 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
3913 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
3915 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
3916 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
3917 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
3918 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
3919 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
3920 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
3921 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
3923 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
3924 scm_end_input (object);
3925 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
3926 ptob->flush (object);
3928 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
3929 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
3932 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
3934 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
3936 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
3937 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
3938 removed in a future version.
3940 ** The format of error message strings has changed
3942 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
3943 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
3944 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
3945 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
3947 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
3948 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
3950 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
3953 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
3955 in your configure.in.
3957 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
3962 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
3968 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
3970 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
3974 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
3975 (define make-message string-append)
3977 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
3979 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
3983 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
3988 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
3992 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
3994 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
3995 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
3997 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
3999 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
4000 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
4001 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
4002 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
4003 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
4004 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
4006 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
4007 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
4008 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
4010 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
4011 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
4012 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
4015 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
4016 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
4017 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
4018 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
4019 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
4021 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
4022 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
4023 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
4024 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
4025 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
4026 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
4027 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
4029 Destructors are not yet implemented.
4031 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
4032 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
4033 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
4035 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
4036 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
4037 KEY in the calling thread.
4039 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
4040 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
4041 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
4042 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
4043 associated with the key.
4045 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
4047 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
4048 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
4050 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
4052 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
4053 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
4054 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
4056 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
4058 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
4059 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
4061 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
4063 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
4065 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
4066 returned is undefined.
4068 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
4069 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
4070 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
4072 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
4073 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
4074 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
4076 ** New C level GC hooks
4078 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
4080 scm_before_gc_c_hook
4083 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
4084 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
4085 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
4087 scm_before_mark_c_hook
4088 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
4089 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
4091 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
4092 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
4095 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
4097 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
4098 allocation parameters
4100 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
4101 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
4102 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
4106 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
4107 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
4108 scm_default_max_segment_size
4110 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
4112 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
4113 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
4115 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
4117 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
4118 object and count on the object being protected until
4119 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
4121 The functions also have better time complexity.
4123 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
4124 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
4125 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
4126 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
4127 are no longer needed.
4129 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
4131 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
4132 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
4133 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
4134 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
4136 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
4138 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
4140 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
4142 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
4143 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
4144 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
4145 until this issue has been settled.
4147 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
4149 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
4151 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
4154 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
4156 * Changes to system call interfaces:
4158 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
4159 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
4160 descriptors were checked.
4162 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
4163 atomically written to a pipe.
4165 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
4166 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
4167 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
4168 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
4169 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
4170 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
4171 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
4174 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
4175 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
4176 is changed without calling tzset.
4178 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
4180 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
4181 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
4182 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
4184 (define write-network-long
4185 (lambda (value port)
4186 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
4187 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
4188 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
4190 (define read-network-long
4192 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
4193 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
4194 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
4196 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
4197 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
4199 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
4200 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
4201 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
4202 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
4204 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
4205 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
4206 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
4207 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
4211 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
4213 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4217 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
4218 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
4219 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
4225 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
4226 for a description of available commands.
4228 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
4229 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
4230 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
4232 (debug-enable 'backwards)
4234 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
4235 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
4237 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
4239 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
4241 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
4242 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
4243 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
4244 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
4245 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
4246 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
4249 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
4251 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
4252 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
4253 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
4254 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
4256 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
4257 the file and should not be affected by this change.
4259 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
4261 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4263 ** Readline support has changed again.
4265 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
4266 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
4267 to activate readline is now
4269 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
4272 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
4274 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
4275 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
4276 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
4279 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
4280 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
4281 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
4284 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
4285 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
4286 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
4287 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
4288 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
4289 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
4291 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
4292 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
4294 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
4296 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
4297 object it receives is the same string passed to
4298 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
4299 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
4300 string, not the suffix.
4302 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
4303 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
4304 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
4306 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
4308 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
4309 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
4310 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
4311 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
4314 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
4316 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
4318 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
4319 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
4320 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
4321 appear from left to right.
4323 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
4326 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
4328 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
4329 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
4331 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
4335 *** New function: hook? OBJ
4337 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
4339 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
4341 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
4342 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
4343 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
4345 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
4347 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
4349 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
4351 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
4354 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
4356 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
4357 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
4358 mentioning it here anyway.
4360 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
4362 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
4363 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
4364 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
4365 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
4368 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
4370 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
4372 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
4374 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
4375 otherwise return #f.
4377 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
4379 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
4380 returned by `opendir'.
4382 ** New function: using-readline?
4384 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
4386 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
4388 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
4389 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
4391 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4393 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
4395 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
4396 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
4397 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
4399 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
4401 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
4402 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
4404 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
4406 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
4407 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
4408 documentation slots are not yet used.
4410 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
4412 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
4413 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
4414 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
4419 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
4420 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
4421 (string-append x y))
4423 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
4424 can also be used for concatenating strings.
4426 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
4427 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
4428 be made in a clean way.]
4430 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
4432 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
4434 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
4436 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
4437 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
4439 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4441 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
4443 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
4445 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
4447 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
4448 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
4449 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
4450 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
4453 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4455 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
4457 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
4459 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
4461 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
4462 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
4464 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4466 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
4468 Evaluates the body of a special form.
4470 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
4472 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
4473 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
4474 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
4475 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
4476 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
4477 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
4479 This should not make any difference for most users.
4481 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
4483 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
4484 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
4486 *** New functions for applying generic functions
4488 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
4489 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
4490 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
4491 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
4492 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
4494 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
4496 It is now replaced by:
4498 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
4500 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4501 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4503 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4505 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
4506 This might change when we get the new module system.
4508 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
4512 Changes since Guile 1.3:
4514 * Changes to mailing lists
4516 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
4518 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
4521 * Changes to the distribution
4523 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
4525 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
4526 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
4527 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
4528 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
4529 you explicitly specify it.
4531 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
4532 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
4533 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
4534 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
4535 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
4538 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
4539 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
4540 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
4541 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
4543 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
4544 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
4545 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
4548 You can activate the readline support by issuing
4550 (use-modules (readline-activator))
4553 from your ".guile" file, for example.
4555 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4557 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
4558 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
4559 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
4560 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
4562 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
4563 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
4566 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4568 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
4569 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
4570 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
4571 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
4572 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
4573 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
4574 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
4575 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
4587 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
4588 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
4589 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
4590 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
4591 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
4596 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
4597 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
4605 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
4610 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
4611 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
4614 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
4615 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
4616 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
4617 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
4619 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
4621 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
4623 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
4624 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
4626 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
4628 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
4630 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
4631 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
4633 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
4636 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
4638 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
4640 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
4642 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
4644 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
4646 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
4648 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
4649 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
4650 when the hook was created.
4652 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
4653 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
4654 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
4655 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
4656 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
4657 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
4658 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
4659 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
4660 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
4662 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
4663 the dlopen family of functions.
4665 ** New function `provided?'
4667 - Function: provided? FEATURE
4668 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
4669 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
4670 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
4672 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
4674 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
4675 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
4676 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
4677 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
4680 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
4681 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
4682 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
4683 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
4685 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
4686 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
4687 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
4690 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
4691 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
4692 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
4693 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
4694 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
4695 but with the flag set.
4697 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
4699 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
4700 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
4702 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
4703 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
4704 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
4705 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
4706 available Scheme format implementations.
4708 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
4709 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
4710 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
4711 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
4712 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
4713 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
4714 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
4715 output is to the current error port if available by the
4716 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
4719 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
4720 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
4721 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
4722 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
4723 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
4724 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
4725 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
4726 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
4728 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
4729 be executed at a time.
4732 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
4734 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
4735 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
4736 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
4738 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
4739 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
4740 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
4741 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
4742 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
4743 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
4744 general form of a directive is:
4746 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
4748 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
4750 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4752 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
4753 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
4754 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
4757 Any (print as `display' does).
4761 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
4765 S-expression (print as `write' does).
4769 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
4775 print number sign always.
4778 print comma separated.
4780 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
4786 print number sign always.
4789 print comma separated.
4791 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
4797 print number sign always.
4800 print comma separated.
4802 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
4808 print number sign always.
4811 print comma separated.
4813 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
4818 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
4822 print a number as a Roman numeral.
4825 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
4828 print a number as an ordinal English number.
4831 print a number as a cardinal English number.
4836 prints `y' and `ies'.
4839 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4842 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4847 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
4851 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
4854 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
4855 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
4857 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4860 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
4861 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
4863 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4866 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
4868 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
4870 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4873 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
4875 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
4877 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4880 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
4883 The sign appears before the padding.
4891 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
4893 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
4898 print N page separators.
4908 newline is ignored, white space left.
4911 newline is left, white space ignored.
4916 relative tabulation.
4922 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
4924 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
4927 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
4929 converts by `string-capitalize'.
4932 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
4935 converts by `string-upcase'.
4938 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
4940 jumps N arguments forward.
4943 jumps 1 argument backward.
4946 jumps N arguments backward.
4949 jumps to the 0th argument.
4952 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
4954 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
4955 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
4957 take argument from N.
4960 true test conditional.
4963 if-else-then conditional.
4969 default clause follows.
4972 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
4974 at most N iterations.
4977 args from next arg (a list of lists).
4980 args from the rest of arguments.
4983 args from the rest args (lists).
4994 aborts if N <= M <= K
4996 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4999 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5002 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5008 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
5010 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
5012 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
5013 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
5014 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
5015 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
5016 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
5017 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
5021 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
5025 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
5031 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
5034 Print a `#\space' character
5036 print N `#\space' characters.
5039 Print a `#\tab' character
5041 print N `#\tab' characters.
5044 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
5045 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
5046 must be a positive decimal number.
5049 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5050 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5051 be processed by `read'.
5054 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5055 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5056 be processed by `read'.
5059 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
5062 prints format version.
5065 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
5066 and format it accordingly.
5068 *** Configuration Variables
5070 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
5071 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
5072 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
5073 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
5076 format:symbol-case-conv
5077 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
5078 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
5079 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
5080 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
5081 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
5083 format:iobj-case-conv
5084 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
5085 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
5088 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
5091 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
5097 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
5098 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
5099 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
5100 `format' padding style.
5103 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
5104 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
5105 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
5106 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
5110 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
5111 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
5112 directive parameters or modifiers)).
5115 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
5116 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
5117 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
5118 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
5119 parameters or modifiers)).
5122 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
5124 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
5126 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
5127 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
5129 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
5130 string-downcase! functions.
5132 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
5133 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
5135 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
5138 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
5141 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
5142 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
5144 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
5146 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
5147 the symbol had be read by `read'.
5149 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
5150 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
5151 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
5152 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
5153 would if STRING were input.
5155 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
5157 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
5158 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
5159 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
5160 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
5163 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
5165 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
5166 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
5169 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
5171 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
5172 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
5174 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
5175 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
5177 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
5178 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
5179 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
5180 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
5182 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
5183 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
5185 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
5186 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
5187 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
5189 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
5190 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
5192 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
5193 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
5194 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
5195 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
5196 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
5198 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
5199 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
5200 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
5201 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
5202 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
5203 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
5205 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
5206 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
5207 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
5210 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
5211 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
5212 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
5213 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
5214 the following grammar:
5215 ((apples (single-char #\a))
5216 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
5217 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
5218 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
5219 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
5220 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
5221 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
5222 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
5223 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
5224 last option in its combination)
5226 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
5227 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
5228 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
5229 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
5231 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
5232 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
5233 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
5235 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
5236 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
5237 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
5239 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
5240 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
5241 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
5242 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
5243 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
5244 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
5245 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
5246 ordinary argument strings.
5248 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
5249 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
5250 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
5251 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
5253 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
5254 as a list, associated with the empty list.
5256 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
5257 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
5258 - a required option is omitted
5259 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
5260 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
5261 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
5262 - an option predicate fails
5267 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
5270 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
5271 (verbose (required? #f)
5274 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
5275 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
5276 (predicate ,string?))))
5278 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
5279 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
5281 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
5282 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
5283 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
5284 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
5287 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
5289 It will be removed in a few releases.
5291 ** New syntax: lambda*
5292 ** New syntax: define*
5293 ** New syntax: define*-public
5294 ** New syntax: defmacro*
5295 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
5296 Guile now supports optional arguments.
5298 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
5299 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
5300 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
5301 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
5302 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
5304 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
5305 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
5306 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
5308 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
5310 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
5311 and examples for `lambda*':
5314 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
5316 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
5317 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
5318 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
5319 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
5320 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
5321 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
5322 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
5323 can be checked with the bound? macro.
5325 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
5327 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
5328 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
5329 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
5330 are given as keywords are bound to values.
5332 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
5333 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
5334 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
5335 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
5336 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
5337 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
5338 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
5339 and until the procedure is called.
5341 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
5343 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
5344 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
5345 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
5346 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
5347 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
5348 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
5349 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
5350 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
5351 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
5352 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
5354 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
5355 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
5356 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
5357 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
5360 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
5362 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
5363 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
5364 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
5365 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
5367 ** New syntax: and-let*
5368 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
5370 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
5371 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
5372 (<variable> <expression>)
5375 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
5376 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
5377 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
5380 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
5381 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
5382 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
5383 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
5384 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
5385 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
5386 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
5388 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
5389 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
5390 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
5391 shadow earlier bindings.
5393 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
5395 ** New sorting functions
5397 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
5398 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
5399 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
5400 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
5402 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
5403 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
5406 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
5407 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
5408 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
5410 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
5411 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
5412 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
5413 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
5415 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
5416 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
5417 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
5418 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
5419 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
5422 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
5423 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
5424 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
5425 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
5426 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
5427 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
5429 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
5430 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
5431 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
5433 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
5434 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
5435 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
5438 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
5439 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
5440 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
5442 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
5443 Added for compatibility with scsh.
5445 ** New built-in random number support
5447 *** New function: random N [STATE]
5448 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
5449 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
5450 returned have a uniform distribution.
5452 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
5453 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
5454 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
5455 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
5456 effect of the `random' operation.
5458 *** New variable: *random-state*
5459 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
5460 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
5461 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
5462 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
5463 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
5466 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
5467 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
5468 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
5469 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
5470 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
5472 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
5473 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
5474 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
5475 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
5476 initialized using SEED.
5478 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
5479 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
5480 range between 0 and 1.
5482 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
5483 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
5484 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
5485 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
5486 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
5487 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
5488 or a uniform vector of doubles.
5490 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
5491 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
5492 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
5493 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
5494 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
5495 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
5497 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
5498 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
5499 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
5500 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
5502 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
5503 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
5504 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
5505 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
5507 *** New function: random:exp STATE
5508 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
5509 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
5511 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
5513 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
5516 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
5517 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
5520 ** New function: make-guardian
5521 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
5522 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
5523 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
5524 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
5525 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
5527 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
5528 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
5529 one object if at all.
5531 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
5532 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
5533 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
5535 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
5536 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
5537 read again in last-in first-out order.
5539 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
5540 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
5542 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
5544 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
5545 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
5546 file position is used.
5548 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
5549 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
5550 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
5552 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
5553 redefined using seek.
5555 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
5556 size is not supplied.
5558 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
5559 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
5561 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
5562 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
5564 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
5566 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
5567 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
5568 and returns the contents as a single string.
5570 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
5571 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
5572 lists in serial order.
5574 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
5575 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
5576 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
5578 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
5579 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
5580 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
5581 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
5583 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
5584 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
5585 and #f if an error occured.
5587 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
5589 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
5590 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
5591 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
5592 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
5594 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
5596 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
5599 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
5601 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
5604 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5608 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
5609 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
5611 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
5612 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
5616 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5618 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
5620 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
5621 binds a variable named NAME to it.
5623 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
5625 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
5626 might change when we get the new module system.
5628 ** The smob interface
5630 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
5631 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
5633 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
5635 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
5639 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
5640 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
5641 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
5642 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
5643 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
5644 will be freed by the default free function.
5646 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
5647 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
5648 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5649 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5651 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
5652 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
5653 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5654 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5656 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
5658 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
5659 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
5663 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
5664 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5665 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5667 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
5668 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
5669 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
5670 `scm_make_smob_type'.
5672 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
5673 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
5674 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
5676 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
5677 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
5678 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
5679 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
5681 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
5682 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
5683 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
5685 *** scm_newptob has been removed
5689 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
5691 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
5692 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
5693 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
5695 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
5696 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
5697 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
5699 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
5700 a string port's buffer.
5702 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
5703 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
5704 function pointers which together define the current random number
5705 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
5706 number library functions.
5708 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
5711 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
5712 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
5715 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
5716 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
5718 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
5719 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
5721 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
5722 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
5725 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
5726 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
5727 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
5728 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
5730 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
5731 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
5732 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
5733 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
5734 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
5735 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
5736 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
5738 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
5739 by libguile and the application.
5741 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
5742 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
5743 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
5744 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
5746 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
5747 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
5749 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
5750 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
5751 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
5753 ** Random number library functions
5754 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
5755 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
5756 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
5758 The default random state is stored in:
5760 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
5761 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
5762 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
5767 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
5769 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
5770 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
5771 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
5772 isn't a random state.
5774 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
5775 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
5777 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
5778 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
5779 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
5780 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
5782 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5783 Return 32 random bits.
5785 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5786 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
5788 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5789 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
5791 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
5792 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
5794 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
5795 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
5797 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
5798 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
5799 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
5803 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
5805 * Changes to the distribution
5807 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
5808 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
5809 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
5812 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
5813 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
5814 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
5816 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
5817 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
5818 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
5819 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
5822 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
5823 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
5824 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
5826 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5828 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
5830 *** Function: batch-mode?
5832 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
5835 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
5837 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
5838 case has not been implemented.
5840 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
5841 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
5842 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
5845 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
5846 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
5848 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
5850 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5852 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
5854 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
5855 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
5858 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
5859 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
5860 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
5861 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
5864 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
5866 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
5867 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
5868 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
5869 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
5870 find those libraries.
5872 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
5873 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
5876 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
5878 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
5879 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
5880 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
5881 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
5883 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
5884 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
5885 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
5889 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
5891 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
5892 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
5893 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
5896 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
5897 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
5898 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
5899 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
5901 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
5902 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
5905 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
5906 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
5907 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
5908 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
5909 compiler where to find the libraries.
5911 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
5912 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
5913 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
5915 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
5916 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
5917 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
5918 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
5919 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
5923 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5925 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
5926 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
5927 internationalization support.
5929 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
5930 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
5931 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
5932 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
5933 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
5935 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
5936 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
5937 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
5938 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
5939 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
5941 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
5942 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
5943 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
5944 any GNU mirror site.
5946 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
5948 ** New function: add-history STRING
5949 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
5950 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
5951 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
5953 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
5955 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
5956 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
5957 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
5960 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
5961 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
5962 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
5964 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
5966 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
5969 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
5970 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
5973 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
5974 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
5975 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
5976 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
5977 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
5978 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
5980 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
5981 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
5982 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
5983 of the form mentioned above.
5985 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
5986 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
5987 returned in the special `rest' list.
5989 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
5990 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
5992 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
5994 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
5996 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
5998 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
5999 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
6000 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
6001 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
6002 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
6003 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
6004 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
6005 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
6008 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
6010 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
6012 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
6013 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
6016 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
6017 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
6018 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
6022 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
6023 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
6024 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
6025 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
6026 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
6027 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
6028 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
6029 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
6032 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
6034 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
6035 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
6036 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
6038 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
6040 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
6041 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
6043 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
6044 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
6045 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
6047 Why do we have this function?
6048 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
6049 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
6050 primitive, and display it differently, and
6051 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
6052 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
6055 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
6056 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
6059 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
6060 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
6061 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
6062 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
6064 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
6065 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
6068 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
6069 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
6071 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
6073 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
6074 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
6075 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
6076 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
6077 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
6078 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
6079 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
6082 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
6084 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
6085 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
6087 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
6088 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
6089 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
6090 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
6091 properly continue the print chain.
6093 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
6094 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
6095 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
6096 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
6097 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
6098 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
6099 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
6100 print-state, it is simply ignored.
6102 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
6103 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
6104 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
6105 safest to not check for these pairs.
6107 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
6108 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
6109 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
6110 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
6112 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
6114 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
6115 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
6117 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
6119 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
6121 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
6122 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
6123 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
6125 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
6126 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
6127 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
6129 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
6130 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
6131 the following functions and macros:
6133 Function: make-fluid
6135 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
6136 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
6137 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
6138 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
6139 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
6141 Function: fluid? OBJ
6143 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
6145 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
6146 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
6148 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
6149 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
6151 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
6153 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
6154 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
6155 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
6156 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
6157 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
6158 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
6159 modified by `with-fluids*'.
6161 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
6163 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
6164 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
6165 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
6166 should evaluate to a fluid.
6168 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
6170 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
6171 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
6172 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
6173 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
6174 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
6176 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
6179 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
6181 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
6183 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
6185 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
6188 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
6189 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
6190 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
6191 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
6192 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
6195 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
6196 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
6197 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
6199 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
6200 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
6201 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
6203 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
6204 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
6205 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
6206 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
6208 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
6209 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
6210 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
6211 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
6213 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
6214 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
6215 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
6216 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
6218 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
6219 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
6220 their revealed counts set to zero.
6222 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6223 Returns an integer file descriptor.
6225 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6226 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
6228 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6229 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
6231 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6232 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
6233 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
6235 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
6236 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
6237 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
6239 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
6240 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
6241 default environment inherited by child processes.
6243 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
6244 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
6245 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
6247 The return value is unspecified.
6249 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
6250 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
6251 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
6252 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
6253 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
6255 The return value is unspecified.
6257 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
6258 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
6266 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
6267 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
6270 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
6273 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
6274 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
6275 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
6277 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
6278 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
6279 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
6280 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
6283 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
6284 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
6286 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
6287 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
6288 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
6289 the `environ' procedure.
6291 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
6292 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
6295 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
6296 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
6298 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
6299 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
6300 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
6301 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
6303 *** procedure: times
6304 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
6305 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
6306 return a selected component:
6309 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
6313 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
6316 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
6320 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
6321 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
6325 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
6326 terminated child processes.
6328 ** Removed: list-length
6329 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
6330 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
6332 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
6334 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
6336 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
6338 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
6339 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
6340 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
6341 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
6343 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
6344 extra complexity it introduces.
6346 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
6347 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
6349 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
6350 variable to any non-empty value.
6352 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
6353 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
6355 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6357 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
6358 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
6360 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
6362 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
6363 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
6365 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
6367 ** vector handling routines
6369 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
6370 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
6371 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
6372 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
6373 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
6375 ** pair and list routines
6377 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
6380 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
6382 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
6385 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6387 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
6389 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
6390 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
6391 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
6392 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
6393 site-specific initialization code.
6395 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
6396 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
6397 initialization processes.
6399 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
6400 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
6401 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
6402 initialized properly.
6404 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
6405 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
6406 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
6408 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
6409 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
6410 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
6411 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
6412 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
6414 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
6416 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
6417 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
6418 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
6419 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
6420 objects the smob refers to get marked.
6422 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
6423 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
6424 which look like this:
6427 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
6429 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
6430 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
6433 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
6434 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
6437 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
6439 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
6440 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
6441 you will need to change your functions slightly.
6443 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
6444 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
6445 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
6446 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
6447 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
6449 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
6450 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
6452 int (*free) (SCM port);
6453 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
6454 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
6455 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
6459 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
6460 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
6461 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
6463 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
6466 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
6467 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
6468 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
6470 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
6471 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
6472 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
6475 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
6479 struct timeval *timeout);
6481 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
6482 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
6483 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
6484 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
6485 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
6486 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
6488 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
6489 scm_catch_body_t body,
6491 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
6494 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
6495 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
6496 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
6497 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
6498 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
6499 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
6501 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
6503 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
6506 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
6507 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
6508 spawning threads from application C code.
6510 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
6511 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
6512 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
6513 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
6514 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
6515 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
6517 ** Removed functions:
6519 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
6520 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
6522 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
6524 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
6525 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
6527 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
6529 ** mbstrings are now removed
6531 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
6532 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
6534 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
6536 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
6537 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
6538 their new names and arguments:
6540 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
6541 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
6542 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
6543 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
6546 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
6548 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
6550 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
6553 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
6555 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
6556 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
6557 pass a #f arg to catch.
6559 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
6561 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
6562 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
6565 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
6566 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
6567 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
6568 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
6569 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
6570 reclaim its storage.
6572 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
6573 worrying that some other function you call will call
6574 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
6575 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
6576 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
6577 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
6580 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
6582 * Changes to the distribution
6584 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
6585 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
6588 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
6589 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
6591 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
6592 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
6594 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
6596 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
6597 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
6598 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
6600 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6602 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
6603 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
6604 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
6605 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
6606 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
6607 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
6609 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
6610 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
6611 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
6614 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
6615 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
6616 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
6617 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
6619 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
6620 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
6621 libraries to your link command:
6623 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
6624 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
6625 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6626 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6628 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
6629 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
6630 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
6632 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6634 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
6635 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
6638 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
6640 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
6641 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
6642 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
6643 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
6644 searched is system dependent.
6646 (dynamic-object? VAL)
6648 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
6650 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
6652 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
6653 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
6655 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
6657 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
6658 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
6659 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
6660 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
6661 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
6664 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
6666 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
6667 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
6668 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
6669 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
6670 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
6672 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
6674 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
6675 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
6677 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
6679 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
6680 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
6681 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
6684 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
6686 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
6687 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
6688 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
6689 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
6691 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
6692 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
6694 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
6696 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
6697 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
6699 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
6701 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
6702 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
6710 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
6712 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
6713 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
6714 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
6715 a more informative way.
6717 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
6718 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
6719 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
6720 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
6721 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
6722 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
6724 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
6725 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
6728 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
6729 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
6730 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
6733 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
6734 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
6735 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
6736 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
6737 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
6738 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
6740 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
6741 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
6742 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
6743 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
6746 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
6747 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
6748 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
6749 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
6750 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
6751 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
6753 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
6754 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
6755 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
6756 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
6757 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
6759 *** regexp functions
6761 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
6762 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
6763 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
6765 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
6766 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
6767 with SCSH regular expressions.
6769 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
6770 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
6771 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
6772 position of STR at which to begin matching.
6774 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
6775 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
6776 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
6777 `string-match' returns `#f'.
6779 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
6780 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
6781 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
6782 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
6783 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
6784 match strings against the compiled regexp.
6786 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
6787 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
6788 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
6789 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
6790 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
6792 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6794 **** Constant: regexp/extended
6795 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
6796 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
6797 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
6799 **** Constant: regexp/icase
6800 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
6801 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
6803 **** Constant: regexp/newline
6804 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
6806 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
6809 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
6810 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6811 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
6813 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
6814 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
6815 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
6817 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
6818 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
6819 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
6820 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
6821 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
6824 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6826 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
6827 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
6828 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
6829 used when different portions of a string are passed to
6830 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
6831 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
6833 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
6834 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
6835 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
6837 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
6838 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
6841 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
6842 and replace them with the contents of another string.
6844 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
6845 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
6846 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
6847 may be one of the following arguments:
6849 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
6851 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
6853 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
6854 the regexp match is written.
6856 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
6857 following the regexp match is written.
6859 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
6860 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
6863 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
6864 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
6865 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
6866 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
6867 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
6868 which should be matched against this regular expression.
6870 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
6873 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
6874 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
6875 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
6876 written out to PORT.
6878 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
6879 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
6880 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
6881 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
6882 will return after processing a single match.
6884 *** Match Structures
6886 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
6887 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
6888 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
6889 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
6890 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
6891 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
6894 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
6895 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
6896 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
6897 information about the original target string that was matched against a
6898 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
6900 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
6901 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
6902 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
6904 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
6905 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
6906 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
6907 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
6908 number N did not match, return `#f'.
6910 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
6911 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
6913 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
6914 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
6916 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
6917 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
6919 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
6920 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
6922 **** Function: match:count MATCH
6923 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
6924 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
6925 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
6927 **** Function: match:string MATCH
6928 Return the original TARGET string.
6930 *** Backslash Escapes
6932 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
6933 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
6934 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
6935 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
6936 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
6937 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
6939 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
6940 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
6941 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
6942 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
6943 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
6944 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
6945 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
6946 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
6948 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
6949 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
6950 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
6951 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
6952 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
6953 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
6954 each match a single backslash in the target string.
6956 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
6957 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
6958 return the resulting string.
6960 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
6961 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
6962 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
6963 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
6964 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
6965 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
6966 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
6967 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
6968 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
6969 translated to the single character `*'.
6971 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
6972 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
6973 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
6974 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
6975 consecutive backslashes:
6977 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
6979 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
6980 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
6981 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
6983 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
6984 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
6985 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
6986 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
6987 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
6988 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
6990 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
6992 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
6993 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
6994 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
6995 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
6996 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
6997 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
6998 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
6999 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
7000 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
7001 cumbersome escape syntax.
7003 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7005 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7007 * Changes to system call interfaces:
7009 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
7012 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
7014 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
7016 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
7019 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
7020 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
7021 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
7022 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
7023 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
7025 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
7026 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
7027 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
7028 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
7029 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
7030 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
7031 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
7034 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
7035 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
7036 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
7039 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
7040 `force-output' on every port open for output.
7042 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
7043 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
7044 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
7045 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
7046 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
7047 installed, you can say:
7049 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
7052 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7054 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
7055 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
7056 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
7057 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
7058 new dynamic roots and threads.
7061 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
7063 * Changes to the distribution.
7065 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
7067 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
7068 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
7069 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
7070 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
7071 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
7072 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
7073 programming language. These are packaged together because the
7074 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
7076 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
7079 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
7080 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
7085 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
7087 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
7088 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
7090 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
7091 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
7092 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
7093 the (command-line) function.
7094 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
7095 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
7096 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
7098 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
7099 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
7100 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
7101 command line arguments
7102 -ds do -s script at this point
7103 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
7104 -h, --help display this help and exit
7105 -v, --version display version information and exit
7106 \ read arguments from following script lines
7108 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
7109 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
7111 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7114 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
7118 (main (command-line))
7120 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
7122 ekko a speckled gecko
7124 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
7125 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
7126 following list of command-line arguments:
7128 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
7130 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
7131 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
7132 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
7133 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
7134 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
7136 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
7138 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
7140 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
7141 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
7144 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
7145 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
7146 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
7147 SCSH) for circumventing them.
7149 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
7150 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
7151 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
7152 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
7154 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
7158 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
7162 If the user invokes this script as follows:
7164 ekko a speckled gecko
7166 Unix expands this into
7168 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
7170 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
7171 read from the second line of the script, producing:
7173 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
7175 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
7176 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
7178 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
7179 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
7180 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
7181 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
7182 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
7183 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
7184 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
7185 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
7186 it only terminates the argument list.)
7187 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
7188 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
7189 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
7190 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
7191 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
7192 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
7193 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
7194 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
7196 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7198 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
7199 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
7200 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
7201 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
7202 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
7204 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
7205 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
7206 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
7208 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
7210 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
7211 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
7212 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
7213 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
7216 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
7217 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7218 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7220 * Changes to Scheme functions
7222 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
7223 and disabled by default.
7225 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
7226 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
7227 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
7228 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
7230 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
7232 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
7234 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
7235 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
7237 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
7238 (read-set! keywords #f)
7240 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
7241 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
7242 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
7245 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
7246 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
7247 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
7250 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
7251 support for Scheme functions.
7253 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
7254 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
7255 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
7256 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
7259 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
7260 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
7261 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
7264 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
7265 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
7266 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
7269 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
7270 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
7271 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
7272 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
7273 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
7274 display the result as a prompt.
7275 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
7277 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
7278 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
7279 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
7282 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
7283 procedure of zero arguments.
7285 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
7286 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
7287 argument is bound in the current module.
7289 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
7290 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
7291 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
7292 public bindings into the current module.
7294 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
7295 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
7297 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
7298 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
7300 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
7301 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
7303 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
7304 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
7306 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
7307 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
7309 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
7310 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
7311 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
7312 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
7313 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
7315 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
7316 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
7317 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
7318 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
7320 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
7323 ** Changes to I/O functions
7325 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
7326 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
7327 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
7329 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
7330 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
7331 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
7333 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
7334 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
7336 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
7337 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
7338 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
7339 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
7341 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
7343 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
7344 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
7346 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
7347 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
7348 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
7349 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
7350 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
7353 'trim omit delimiter from result
7354 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
7355 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
7356 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
7358 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
7360 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
7361 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
7363 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
7364 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
7365 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
7366 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
7367 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
7369 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
7370 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
7371 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
7373 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
7374 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
7375 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
7376 above, and defaults to 'peek.
7378 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
7379 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
7381 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
7382 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
7384 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
7386 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
7387 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
7388 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
7389 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
7390 a delimiting character.
7391 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
7393 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
7394 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
7395 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
7396 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
7397 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
7398 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
7400 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
7401 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
7403 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
7404 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
7405 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
7407 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
7408 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
7409 the array to read and write.
7411 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
7412 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
7415 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
7417 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
7420 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
7421 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
7422 Values for COMMAND are:
7424 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
7425 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
7426 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
7427 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
7428 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
7429 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
7430 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
7431 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
7433 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
7435 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
7436 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
7437 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
7438 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
7439 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
7440 corresponding return set will be the same.
7442 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
7445 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
7446 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
7447 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
7448 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
7449 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
7450 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
7451 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
7452 special file being created.
7454 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
7455 clashing with various SCSH forks.
7457 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
7458 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
7459 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
7460 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
7461 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
7462 and originating address.
7464 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
7465 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
7466 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
7468 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
7471 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
7472 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
7475 (status:exit-val STATUS)
7476 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
7477 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
7478 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
7479 this function returns #f.
7481 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
7482 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
7483 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
7486 (status:term-sig STATUS)
7487 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
7488 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
7491 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
7492 a valid STATUS value.
7494 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
7496 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
7497 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
7499 Component Accessor Setter
7500 ========================= ============ ============
7501 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
7502 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
7503 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
7504 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
7505 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
7506 year tm:year set-tm:year
7507 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
7508 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
7509 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
7510 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
7511 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
7513 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
7514 describing the host system:
7517 ============================================== ================
7518 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
7519 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
7520 release level of the operating system utsname:release
7521 version level of the operating system utsname:version
7522 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
7524 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
7525 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
7526 system's user database:
7529 ====================== =================
7530 user name passwd:name
7531 user password passwd:passwd
7534 real name passwd:gecos
7535 home directory passwd:dir
7536 shell program passwd:shell
7538 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
7539 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
7540 system's group database:
7543 ======================= ============
7544 group name group:name
7545 group password group:passwd
7547 group members group:mem
7549 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
7550 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
7554 ========================= ===============
7555 official name of host hostent:name
7556 alias list hostent:aliases
7557 host address type hostent:addrtype
7558 length of address hostent:length
7559 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
7561 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
7562 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
7566 ========================= ===============
7567 official name of net netent:name
7568 alias list netent:aliases
7569 net number type netent:addrtype
7570 net number netent:net
7572 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
7573 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
7577 ========================= ===============
7578 official protocol name protoent:name
7579 alias list protoent:aliases
7580 protocol number protoent:proto
7582 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
7583 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
7587 ========================= ===============
7588 official service name servent:name
7589 alias list servent:aliases
7590 port number servent:port
7591 protocol to use servent:proto
7593 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
7594 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
7597 ======================================== ===============
7598 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
7599 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
7600 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
7601 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
7603 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
7604 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
7605 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
7607 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
7608 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
7610 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
7611 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
7613 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
7614 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
7616 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
7618 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
7620 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
7621 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
7622 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
7624 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
7625 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
7626 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
7627 return the remaining characters as a string.
7629 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
7630 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
7631 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
7633 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
7635 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7637 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
7640 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
7643 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
7644 and returns the array
7646 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
7647 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
7648 the user to interpret the data both ways.
7650 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7652 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
7653 symbol's value from C code:
7655 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
7656 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
7657 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
7658 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
7660 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
7661 without assigning them a value.
7663 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
7664 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
7665 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
7667 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
7668 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
7669 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
7671 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
7672 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
7674 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
7675 doesn't actually care about that.
7677 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
7678 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
7679 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
7681 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
7682 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
7683 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
7684 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
7685 which we have just created and initialized.
7687 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
7688 should one occur. We call it like this:
7689 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
7691 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
7692 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
7693 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
7694 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
7695 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
7696 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
7699 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
7700 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
7701 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
7702 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
7703 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
7704 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
7705 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
7708 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
7709 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
7710 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
7711 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
7712 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
7715 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
7716 scm_internal_catch, except:
7718 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
7719 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
7720 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
7721 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
7724 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
7725 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
7726 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
7728 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
7729 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
7730 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
7731 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
7734 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
7735 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
7736 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
7738 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
7739 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
7740 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
7741 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
7742 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
7744 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
7745 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
7746 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
7748 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
7749 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
7750 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
7752 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
7753 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
7755 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
7756 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
7757 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
7760 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
7761 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
7762 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
7763 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
7764 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
7765 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
7766 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
7769 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
7770 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
7772 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
7773 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
7774 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
7775 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
7776 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
7779 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
7780 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
7782 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
7783 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
7786 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
7787 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
7789 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7792 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
7793 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
7794 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
7795 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
7796 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
7797 given the following arguments:
7799 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
7801 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
7803 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
7805 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7808 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
7809 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
7810 command-line arguments.
7812 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
7813 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
7814 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
7815 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
7816 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
7817 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
7820 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7823 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
7824 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
7826 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
7827 rearranged slightly. They are now:
7829 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7830 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7831 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
7832 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
7834 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7835 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7837 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7838 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
7839 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7840 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
7842 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7843 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7845 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
7846 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
7848 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
7850 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
7851 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
7852 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
7855 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
7856 returns a port instead of an FD object.
7858 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
7859 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
7864 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
7867 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
7869 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
7870 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
7871 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
7872 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
7874 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
7876 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
7878 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
7879 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
7880 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
7881 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
7882 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
7883 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
7884 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
7885 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
7886 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
7887 for more information.
7889 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
7890 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
7892 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
7893 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
7894 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
7895 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
7896 following two lines at the top of the file:
7898 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7901 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
7902 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
7903 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
7905 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
7907 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7909 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
7912 (display (car args))
7913 (if (pair? (cdr args))
7915 (loop (cdr args)))))
7918 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
7919 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
7920 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
7921 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
7922 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
7923 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
7927 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
7930 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
7933 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
7935 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
7936 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
7937 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
7938 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
7939 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
7942 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
7943 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
7944 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
7945 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
7946 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
7949 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
7952 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
7953 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
7954 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
7957 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
7958 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
7959 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
7961 to see a backtrace, and
7962 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
7963 to see them by default.
7967 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
7969 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
7971 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
7972 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
7975 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
7976 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
7977 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
7978 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
7981 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
7982 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
7983 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
7984 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
7985 functions which inspired them.
7987 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
7988 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
7992 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
7994 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
7996 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
7997 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
8000 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
8001 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
8002 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
8004 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
8005 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
8006 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
8007 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
8008 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
8010 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
8012 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
8013 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
8014 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
8017 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
8020 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
8022 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
8023 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
8024 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
8025 above should serve their purposes.
8027 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
8028 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
8029 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
8030 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
8032 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
8035 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
8036 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
8037 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
8038 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
8040 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
8041 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
8042 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
8043 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
8045 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
8046 for the `read' function.
8049 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
8050 to that of `integer?'.
8052 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
8053 use the R4RS names for these functions.
8055 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
8056 it simply returns the object's property list.
8058 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
8059 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
8060 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
8061 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
8063 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
8065 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
8068 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
8070 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
8071 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
8073 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
8075 void (*main_func) (),
8078 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
8079 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
8080 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
8081 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
8082 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
8084 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
8085 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
8086 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
8087 know which arguments have been processed.
8089 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
8090 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
8091 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
8092 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
8093 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
8095 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
8096 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
8097 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
8098 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
8099 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
8100 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
8101 people from making that mistake.
8103 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
8104 convenient ways to override these when desired.
8106 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
8108 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
8112 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
8115 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
8116 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
8117 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
8118 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
8121 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
8122 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
8123 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
8124 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
8127 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
8128 have been added to the Guile library.
8130 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
8131 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
8132 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
8135 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
8136 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
8137 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
8139 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
8140 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
8141 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
8142 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
8143 argument from the list.
8146 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
8149 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
8150 null-terminated string, and returns it.
8152 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
8153 to a Scheme port object.
8155 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
8156 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
8161 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
8163 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
8164 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
8165 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
8166 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
8167 code as a special datatype.
8169 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
8170 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
8171 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
8172 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
8173 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
8176 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
8177 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
8178 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
8179 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
8180 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
8182 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
8185 Copyright information:
8187 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8189 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8190 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8191 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8192 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8194 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8195 of this document, or of portions of it,
8196 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8197 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8202 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"