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, 2010 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 1.9.8 (since the 1.9.7 prerelease):
13 ** Struct optimizations
15 Structs underly many types in Guile, including records and objects. This
16 release speeds up struct access and creation.
18 ** Add libffi dependency
20 Libffi is now required, to build the foreign function interface. See
21 http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information on libffi.
23 We are not aware of a platform that Guile runs on for which libffi is
26 ** Foreign function interface
28 This release comes with a new `(system foreign)' module. Currently it
29 provides a low level "foreign function interface" (FFI), which allows
30 users to write Scheme code to invoke C code, without writing a single
33 The `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-func' procedures, which have been
34 available for a long time, can be used to get the address of a C
35 function as a "foreign" object at the Scheme level; using libffi, Guile
36 can construct calls to these functions.
38 The arguments to a C function may be integers, floating point numbers,
39 pointers, and structs. Numbers are passed using their normal Scheme
40 representations, and pointers and structs are represented as foreign
41 objects. Foreign objects can be converted back and forth to/from a
42 bytevector. They can have an associated foreign finalizer (e.g., a
43 procedure that will reclaim any associated resources when the object
44 becomes unreachable); alternatively, they can be finalized using a
47 The `(system foreign)' API is currently low-level and possibly
48 inconvenient. It will be extended to provide higher-level constructs.
50 ** Incompatible changes to the foreign value interface introduced in 1.9.7
52 The API in <libguile/foreign.h> changed since 1.9.7. C extensions need
55 ** `dynamic-wind' compilation
57 `dynamic-wind' now has special support from the compiler and VM. The
58 compiler is able to inline the body of a `dynamic-wind', making it more
59 efficient. The run-time support is provided by the `wind' and `unwind'
62 ** New module: `(ice-9 vlist)'
64 This module provides an implementation of Bagwell's VLists and
65 VList-based hash lists ("VHashes"). VLists are a list data structure
66 that provides constant-time random access and length computation
67 logarithmic in the number of elements. VLists also use less storage
68 space than standard Scheme linked lists.
70 VHashes are a functional dictionary type similar to association lists.
71 However, unlike association lists, accessing a value given its key is
72 typically a constant-time operation. VHashes are now used in a few
73 places of the compiler.
75 ** New procedures: `getaddrinfo' and family
77 Bindings for the POSIX getaddrinfo(3) host name and service lookup
78 function are available. This function is now recommended over
79 `gethostname' and friends as it's more expressive and can return a
80 sorted list of addresses, as opposed to a single address.
84 The tutorial was removed. It was incomplete, outdated, and contained C
85 examples that were no longer valid. The reference manual, on the other
86 hand, contains up-to-date examples and documentation.
88 ** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes
90 Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information.
94 Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series):
96 * New modules (see the manual for details)
98 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
99 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
100 ** `(rnrs bytevector)', the R6RS bytevector API
101 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
102 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
103 ** `(ice-9 vlist)', lists with constant-time random access; hash lists
104 ** `(system foreign)', foreign function interface (FIXME: undocumented)
106 ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
108 The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
109 toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
110 "Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
112 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
114 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
116 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
117 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
119 ** The stack limit is now initialized from the environment.
121 If getrlimit(2) is available and a stack limit is set, Guile will set
122 its stack limit to 80% of the rlimit. Otherwise the limit is 160000
123 words, a four-fold increase from the earlier default limit.
125 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
126 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
128 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
129 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
130 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
133 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
135 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. While
136 it is self-documenting to an extent, the new REPL has not yet been
137 documented in the manual. This will be fixed before 2.0.
139 ** New reader options: `square-brackets' and `r6rs-hex-escapes'
141 The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
142 `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
143 parenthesis. This option is on by default.
145 When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
146 will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS.
148 ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
150 The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
151 profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
152 time. See `,help profile' for more information.
154 Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
155 during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
159 By default, if an exception is raised at the REPL and not caught by user
160 code, Guile will drop the user into a debugger. The user may request a
161 backtrace, inspect frames, or continue raising the exception. Full
162 documentation is available from within the debugger.
164 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
166 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
169 ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
171 Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
172 `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
173 include `/path/to/lib'.
175 ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
177 Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
180 ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
182 When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
183 version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
184 allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
185 installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
189 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
191 ** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
193 Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
194 still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
195 compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
196 primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
198 This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
199 to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
200 providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
201 code, and simplifying debugging.
203 As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
204 representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
206 There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
207 takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
208 information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
209 both of these situations.
211 There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
212 public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
213 we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
214 contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
216 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
218 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
219 not apply to the compiler.
221 ** No more `local-eval'
223 `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
224 lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
225 environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
226 and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
229 If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
230 own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
233 ** Files loaded with `primitive-load-path' will now be compiled
236 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
237 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
238 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
240 Note that this mechanism depends on preservation of the .scm and .go
241 modification times; if the .scm or .go files are moved after
242 installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
245 Autocompiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
246 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
247 will be created if needed.
249 To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
250 variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line.
252 Note that there is currently a bug here: automatic compilation will
253 sometimes be attempted when it shouldn't.
255 For example, the old (lang elisp) modules are meant to be interpreted,
256 not compiled. This bug will be fixed before 2.0. FIXME 2.0: Should say
257 something here about module-transformer called for compile.
259 ** Files loaded with `load' will now be compiled automatically.
261 As with files loaded via `primitive-load-path', `load' will also compile
262 its target if autocompilation is enabled, and a fresh compiled file is
265 There are two points of difference to note, however. First, `load' does
266 not search `GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH' for the file; it only looks in the
267 autocompilation directory, normally a subdirectory of ~/.cache/guile.
269 Secondly, autocompilation also applies to files loaded via the -l
270 command-line argument -- so the user may experience a slight slowdown
271 the first time they run a Guile script, as the script is autocompiled.
273 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
275 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
276 in the next prerelease.
278 ** New POSIX procedure: `getsid'
280 Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
282 ** New POSIX procedure: `getaddrinfo'
284 Scheme binding for the `getaddrinfo' C library function.
286 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
288 ** BUG: (procedure-property func 'arity) does not work on compiled
291 This will be fixed one way or another before 2.0.
293 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
294 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
295 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments',
297 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
298 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
299 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
300 procedures' docstrings for more information.
302 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
303 combining arity and formals. For example:
305 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
306 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
308 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
311 ** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
313 These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are
314 no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you
315 probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will
316 probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway).
318 ** New language: ECMAScript
320 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
321 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
322 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
323 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
325 ** New language: Brainfuck
327 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
328 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
329 languages. See the manual for details, or
330 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
331 Brainfuck language itself.
333 ** New language: Elisp
335 Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can
336 now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel
337 Kraft, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
339 ** Defmacros may now have docstrings.
341 Indeed, any macro may have a docstring. `object-documentation' from
342 `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to retrieve the docstring, once you
343 have a macro value -- but see the above note about first-class macros.
344 Docstrings are associated with the syntax transformer procedures.
346 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
349 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
351 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
352 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
355 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
356 (define (helper x) ...)
358 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
360 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
363 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
364 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
366 ** Complete support for version information in Guile's `module' form
368 Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. They may be loaded by
369 version as well. See "R6RS Version References", "General Information
370 about Modules", "Using Guile Modules", and "Creating Guile Modules" in
371 the manual for more information.
373 ** Support for renaming bindings on module export
375 Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
376 export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
377 should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
378 for more information.
380 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
382 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. It is still
383 missing documentation, however.
385 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
388 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
389 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
391 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
393 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
395 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
397 It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g.
398 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate
399 feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the
400 default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0
401 in response to user feedback.
403 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
405 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
406 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
409 (define (helper x) ...)
410 (define-macro (foo bar)
413 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
416 (define (helper x) ...)
417 (define-macro (foo bar)
418 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
420 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
424 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
426 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
428 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
435 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
436 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
439 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
441 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
445 (define-macro (ref x) x)
448 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
449 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
450 macros before code that uses them.
452 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
455 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
457 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
458 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
459 (double-literal 2) => 4
461 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
462 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
463 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
465 (eval-when (load compile eval)
466 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
467 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
468 (double-literal 2) => 4
470 See the (currently missing) documentation for eval-when for more
473 ** New variable, %pre-modules-transformer
475 Need to document this one some more.
477 ** Temporarily removed functions: `macroexpand', `macroexpand-1'
479 `macroexpand' will be added back before 2.0. It is unclear how to
480 implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though PLT Scheme does prove
483 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
485 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
486 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
487 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
489 ** Incompatible change to #'
491 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
492 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
493 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
494 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
496 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
498 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
501 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
502 works (with compiled procedures)
504 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
505 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
506 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
507 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
509 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
510 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
511 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
512 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
513 number of stack frames.
515 ** backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
516 active in the current continuation
518 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
519 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
520 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
521 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
523 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
524 through to the expanded code
526 This should result in better backtraces.
528 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
530 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
532 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
534 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
535 default. If there is sufficient demand, this syntax can be supported
538 ** New procedure, `define!'
540 `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
541 and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
542 programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
543 less verbose than `module-define!'.
545 ** All modules have names now
547 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
548 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
549 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
550 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
552 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
554 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
555 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
556 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
558 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
559 values to the expected number
561 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
562 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
563 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
565 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
566 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
567 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
568 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
570 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
571 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
572 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
574 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
577 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
579 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
581 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
582 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
583 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
584 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
585 the interpreter would proceed.
587 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
588 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
589 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
590 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
592 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
594 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
595 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
596 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
597 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
598 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
599 you to contact the Guile developers.
601 ** psyntax is now the default expander
603 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
604 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
607 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
608 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
609 code in question was memoized.
611 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
612 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
613 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
614 `x432' instead of `x'.
616 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
617 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
618 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
619 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
621 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
623 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
624 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
625 `sc-expand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
628 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
629 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
630 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
631 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
633 ** Tail patterns in syntax-case
635 Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
636 syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
637 are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
638 match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
642 ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
645 Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
646 tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
647 patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
649 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
650 by nonhygienic macros.
652 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
653 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
656 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
657 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
658 (define-macro (ref x)
665 (define-syntax bind-x
667 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
668 (define-macro (ref x)
672 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
673 as code is ported over from defmacros to syntax-case, it is possible to
674 run into situations like this. In the future, Guile will probably port
675 its `while' macro to syntax-case, which makes this issue one to know
678 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
680 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
681 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
683 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
684 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
687 This decision may be revisited before the 2.0 release. Feedback welcome
688 to guile-devel@gnu.org (subscription required) or bug-guile@gnu.org (no
689 subscription required).
691 ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
693 The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
694 `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
695 to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
697 ** Compiled procedures may now have more than one arity.
699 This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
700 arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
701 `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
702 Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
704 ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
706 As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
707 compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
708 Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
709 without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
711 ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
713 `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
714 will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
715 output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
718 There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
719 print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
720 documentation for more details.
722 ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
724 Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
725 have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
726 or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
727 else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
728 APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
729 addressed by element and not by byte.
731 So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
732 numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
733 endianness, as one would expect.
735 Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
736 also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
737 were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
738 u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
741 In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
742 input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
744 Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
745 inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
747 See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
749 ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
751 Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
752 are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
753 `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
755 Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
756 import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
758 See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
760 ** New syntax: include-from-path.
762 `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
763 the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
765 ** New syntax: quasisyntax.
767 `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
768 documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
771 ** Unicode characters
773 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
774 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
775 probably be introduced at some point.
779 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
780 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
781 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
783 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
784 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
785 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
786 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
790 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
792 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
794 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
795 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
796 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
797 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
798 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
801 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
802 code. This use is now discouraged.
804 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
806 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
807 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
808 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
811 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
812 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
813 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
815 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
817 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
819 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
820 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
821 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
822 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
824 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
826 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
827 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
830 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
832 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
833 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
834 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
837 ** EBCDIC support is removed
839 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
840 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
841 and was unmaintained.
843 ** Compile-time warnings
845 Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
846 -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
847 `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
850 Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
851 procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
852 `#:warnings' as above.
854 Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to
855 warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables.
857 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
859 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
862 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
864 This slightly improves program startup times.
866 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
868 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
870 ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
872 As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
873 special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
874 associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
875 underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
877 This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
878 dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
879 implement method combinations.
883 GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
884 but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
885 never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
886 were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
887 applicable structures, but were unusable; entities will come back in the
888 next alpha release, but with a less stupid name.
890 ** Applicable struct support
892 One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
893 To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
894 That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
895 that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
896 `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
897 `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
898 `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
899 the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
901 ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
903 A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
904 call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
905 instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
906 vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
908 ** eqv? not a generic
910 One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
911 more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
912 should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
913 sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
915 ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
917 Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
918 there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
919 functions are deprecated.
921 ** Fast bit operations.
923 The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
924 have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
925 it's for number crunching too.
927 ** Faster SRFI-9 record access
929 SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
930 and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
931 inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
932 (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
934 ** R6RS block comment support
936 Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
937 marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
939 ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
941 To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
942 test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
944 (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
945 ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
946 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
948 ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
949 ;; separate compilation phase.
950 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
952 ** Fix bad interaction between `false-if-exception' and stack-call.
954 Exceptions thrown by `false-if-exception' were erronously causing the
955 stack to be saved, causing later errors to show the incorrectly-saved
956 backtrace. This has been fixed.
958 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
960 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
962 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
964 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
966 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
968 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
970 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
972 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
974 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
975 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
976 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
978 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
980 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
981 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
983 ** New readline history functions
985 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
986 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
987 History library functions.
989 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
990 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
992 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
995 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
997 * Changes to the C interface
999 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
1001 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
1002 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
1003 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
1005 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
1006 code easier and less error-prone.
1008 ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.
1010 `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
1011 `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
1012 available to C. Have fun!
1014 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
1016 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
1018 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
1021 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
1022 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
1024 ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
1026 From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
1027 odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
1028 SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
1031 ** Remove old evaluator closures
1033 There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
1034 structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
1035 procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
1036 newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
1039 ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
1041 It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
1042 allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
1043 Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
1044 defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
1045 solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
1046 both with the old 1.8 and and with the current 1.9 branch.
1048 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
1049 primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
1050 rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
1051 procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
1052 arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
1053 special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
1055 This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
1056 them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
1057 debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
1058 example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
1059 mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
1061 However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
1062 `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
1063 they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
1064 `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
1065 `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
1066 `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
1068 Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
1069 `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
1070 `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
1071 and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
1074 Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
1075 scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
1078 ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
1080 Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
1081 `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
1082 `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
1083 `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
1084 `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
1086 ** Remove unused snarf macros
1088 `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
1089 are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
1091 ** Add foreign value wrapper
1093 Guile now has a datatype for aliasing "foreign" values, such as native
1094 long values. This should be useful for making a proper foreign function
1095 interface. Interested hackers should see libguile/foreign.h.
1097 ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
1099 `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
1100 `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
1102 ** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
1104 Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
1105 they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
1107 ** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
1109 If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
1110 that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
1111 the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
1112 in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
1113 correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
1116 ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
1118 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
1119 objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
1120 trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
1121 trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
1124 The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
1125 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
1126 `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
1127 deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
1129 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
1131 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
1133 ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
1135 It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
1138 ** Inline vector allocation
1140 Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
1141 data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
1142 true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
1143 available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
1146 ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
1148 `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
1149 constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
1153 In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is
1154 no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has
1155 a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API
1156 considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is
1157 in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly.
1159 ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
1161 There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
1162 minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
1163 obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
1164 `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
1165 from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
1166 were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
1170 Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
1171 shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
1172 part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
1173 better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
1175 ** Deprecate trampolines
1177 There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
1178 so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
1179 procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
1180 optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
1181 Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
1183 ** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
1185 The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
1186 efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
1187 Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
1188 like scm_is_null_or_nil. Probably in the future we will #define
1189 scm_is_null to scm_is_null_or_nil.
1191 ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
1193 Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
1194 much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
1197 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
1198 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
1200 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
1202 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
1203 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
1205 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
1207 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
1208 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
1209 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
1210 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
1212 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
1214 * Changes to the distribution
1216 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
1218 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
1219 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
1222 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
1224 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
1225 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
1227 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
1229 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
1230 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
1231 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
1234 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
1236 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
1237 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
1239 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
1241 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
1242 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
1244 ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
1246 Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
1247 (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
1248 be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
1249 directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensionsdir
1250 guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
1252 ** New dependency: libgc
1254 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
1256 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
1258 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
1259 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
1261 ** New dependency: libffi
1263 See http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information.
1267 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
1271 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
1272 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
1273 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
1276 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
1278 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1280 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
1284 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
1285 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
1286 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
1287 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
1288 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
1289 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
1290 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
1291 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
1292 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
1293 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
1294 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
1296 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
1298 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
1299 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
1300 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
1303 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
1306 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
1308 * New features (see the manual for details)
1310 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
1312 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
1314 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
1315 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
1316 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
1318 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
1320 * Changes to the distribution
1322 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
1324 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
1325 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
1327 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
1329 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
1330 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
1335 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
1336 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
1337 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
1338 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
1339 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
1340 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
1341 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
1342 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
1343 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
1344 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
1345 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
1346 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
1347 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
1348 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
1350 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
1351 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
1352 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
1353 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
1354 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
1357 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
1359 * Infrastructure changes
1361 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
1363 The new repository can be accessed using
1364 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
1365 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
1367 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
1369 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
1371 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1375 * New features (see the manual for details)
1377 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
1378 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
1379 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
1381 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
1382 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
1383 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
1384 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
1386 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
1388 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
1389 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
1390 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
1394 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
1395 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
1397 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
1398 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
1400 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
1401 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
1403 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
1404 lead to a stack overflow.
1406 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
1407 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
1408 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
1409 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
1410 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
1411 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
1412 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
1413 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
1414 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
1415 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
1416 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
1417 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
1418 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
1419 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
1420 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
1421 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
1424 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
1428 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
1429 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
1430 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
1431 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
1432 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
1433 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
1434 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
1435 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
1436 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
1437 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
1438 system and library calls.
1439 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
1440 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
1441 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
1442 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
1443 uniform vectors on AIX.
1444 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
1445 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
1446 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
1447 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
1448 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
1450 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1454 * Documentation fixes and improvements
1456 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
1458 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
1459 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
1461 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
1463 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
1465 * Changes to the distribution
1467 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
1469 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
1470 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
1471 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
1473 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
1475 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
1478 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
1480 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1487 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
1488 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
1489 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
1490 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
1491 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
1492 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
1493 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
1495 * Implementation improvements
1497 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
1498 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
1501 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
1503 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1505 ** set-program-arguments
1508 * Incompatible changes
1510 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
1512 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
1513 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
1514 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
1515 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
1520 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
1521 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
1522 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
1523 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
1524 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
1525 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
1527 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
1528 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
1529 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
1530 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
1531 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
1532 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
1533 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
1534 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
1535 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
1536 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
1537 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
1538 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
1539 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
1540 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
1541 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
1542 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
1545 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
1547 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
1549 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1551 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
1552 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
1553 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
1554 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
1555 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
1556 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
1564 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
1566 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
1568 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
1570 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
1572 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
1574 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
1576 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
1577 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
1578 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
1580 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
1582 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
1584 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
1585 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
1587 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
1589 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
1590 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
1592 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
1594 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
1596 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
1598 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
1600 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
1602 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
1604 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
1606 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
1608 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
1610 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
1611 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
1612 file was on a different device.
1615 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
1617 * Changes to the distribution
1619 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
1621 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
1623 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
1625 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
1627 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
1629 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
1632 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
1634 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
1635 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
1636 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
1637 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
1638 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
1639 items like the versioned share directory name
1640 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
1642 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
1643 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
1644 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
1645 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
1646 with each micro release during a stable series.
1648 ** Thread implementation has changed.
1650 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
1651 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
1652 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
1653 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
1654 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
1657 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
1658 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
1659 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
1660 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
1663 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
1664 in which case "null" threads are used.
1666 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
1667 "Blocking", and others.
1669 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
1671 This is a milder form of deprecation.
1673 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
1674 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
1675 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
1676 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
1677 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
1679 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
1680 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
1682 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
1684 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
1685 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
1687 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
1690 This SRFI is always available.
1692 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
1694 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
1695 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
1696 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
1697 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
1700 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
1702 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
1703 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
1704 parameters without currying.
1706 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
1708 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
1709 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
1711 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
1712 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
1715 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
1716 with a renaming import, for example.
1718 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
1720 The official version is good enough now.
1722 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
1724 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
1725 provided. Use 'make html'.
1727 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
1729 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
1730 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
1731 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
1732 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
1734 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
1736 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
1739 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1741 ** New command line option `-L'.
1743 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
1745 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
1747 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
1748 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
1750 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
1752 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
1753 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
1755 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
1757 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
1758 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
1761 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
1764 (define-module (demo)
1768 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
1771 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1773 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
1775 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
1776 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
1777 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
1779 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
1781 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
1782 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
1784 ** New function hashx-remove!
1786 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
1788 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
1789 barriers and dynamic states.
1791 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
1792 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
1793 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
1796 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
1797 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
1798 Barriers" in the manual.
1800 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
1801 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
1803 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
1805 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
1806 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
1807 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
1808 variable %load-path.
1810 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
1812 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
1813 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
1815 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
1816 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
1817 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
1819 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
1820 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
1822 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
1823 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
1824 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
1826 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
1827 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
1828 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
1831 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
1832 substrings and read-only strings.
1834 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
1835 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
1838 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
1840 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
1849 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
1850 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
1851 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
1853 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
1854 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
1855 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
1856 on an ANSI terminal:
1858 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
1859 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
1862 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
1864 See the manual for details.
1866 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
1868 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
1871 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
1873 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
1874 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
1875 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
1876 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
1878 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
1879 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
1880 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
1883 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
1885 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
1886 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
1897 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
1901 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
1906 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
1910 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
1914 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
1917 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
1918 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
1919 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
1920 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
1922 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
1923 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
1926 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
1929 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
1933 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
1935 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
1936 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
1937 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
1940 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
1943 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
1945 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
1948 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
1949 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
1952 (define-module (foo)
1957 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
1958 has been detected is to
1960 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
1961 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
1962 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
1965 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
1968 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
1970 to your .guile init file.
1972 ** New define-module option: :replace
1974 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
1977 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
1978 for the core binding `format'.
1980 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
1982 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
1983 a prefix to all imported bindings.
1985 (define-module (foo)
1986 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
1988 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
1991 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
1993 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
1994 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
1995 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
1997 ** New function: effective-version
1999 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2000 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2001 to the distribution" above.
2003 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
2005 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
2006 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
2008 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
2010 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
2011 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
2013 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
2015 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
2016 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
2019 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
2021 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
2023 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
2025 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
2026 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
2027 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
2030 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
2031 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
2032 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
2033 'system-async-mark'.
2035 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
2036 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
2038 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
2039 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
2040 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
2043 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
2045 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
2046 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
2049 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
2050 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2052 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
2053 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
2054 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
2055 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
2056 level for the current thread.
2058 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
2060 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
2062 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2063 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
2066 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
2068 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
2070 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
2073 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
2075 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
2078 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
2079 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
2080 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
2082 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
2083 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
2084 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
2085 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
2096 ERROR: Numerical overflow
2098 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
2101 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
2103 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
2104 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
2105 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
2116 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
2118 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
2119 them is also done exactly, of course:
2124 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
2125 for exact arguments.
2127 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
2128 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
2130 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
2132 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
2133 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
2134 equal to a floating point number. For example:
2136 (inexact->exact 1.234)
2137 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
2139 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
2141 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
2144 ** New function 'rationalize'.
2146 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
2147 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
2149 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
2152 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
2153 result when both its arguments are exact.
2155 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
2157 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
2158 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
2159 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
2161 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
2163 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
2164 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
2165 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
2167 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
2170 ** pretty-print has more options.
2172 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
2173 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
2174 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
2176 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
2178 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
2179 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
2180 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
2182 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
2184 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
2185 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
2187 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
2189 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
2190 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
2193 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
2195 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
2196 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
2197 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
2198 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
2199 without the soft port blocking.
2201 ** Deprecated: undefine
2203 There is no replacement for undefine.
2205 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
2206 have been discouraged.
2208 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
2209 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
2210 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
2213 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
2215 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
2217 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
2218 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
2219 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
2220 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
2223 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
2224 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
2225 be removed in the next major Guile release.
2227 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
2229 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
2230 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
2231 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
2232 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
2233 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
2234 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
2236 * Changes to the C interface
2238 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
2239 take a 'delete' function argument.
2241 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
2242 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
2244 This is an incompatible change.
2246 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
2248 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
2249 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
2250 --disable-deprecated.
2252 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
2254 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
2255 Scheme values has been added.
2257 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
2258 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
2261 - int scm_is_* (...)
2263 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
2264 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
2266 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
2268 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
2269 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
2272 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
2274 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
2275 scm_from_int for ints.
2277 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
2278 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
2279 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
2281 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
2283 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
2284 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
2285 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
2288 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
2290 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
2292 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
2294 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
2295 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
2296 following alternatives.
2298 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
2299 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
2300 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
2301 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
2303 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
2304 do the validating for you.
2306 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
2307 have been discouraged.
2309 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
2310 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
2313 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
2315 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
2316 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
2319 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
2321 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
2324 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
2327 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
2329 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
2330 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
2332 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
2333 scm_truncate_number should have.
2335 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
2336 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
2338 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
2341 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
2342 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
2343 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
2345 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
2346 easier to use from C.
2348 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
2349 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
2351 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
2352 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
2353 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
2356 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
2357 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
2358 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
2359 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
2362 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
2363 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
2364 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
2365 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
2366 and is thus quite efficient.
2368 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
2370 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
2371 about the character encoding.
2373 Replace according to the following table:
2375 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
2376 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
2377 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
2378 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
2379 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
2380 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
2381 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
2382 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
2383 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
2385 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
2386 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
2388 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
2390 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
2391 now also available to C code.
2393 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
2395 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
2396 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
2397 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
2399 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
2402 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
2404 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
2405 unceremoniously removed.
2407 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
2408 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
2409 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
2411 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
2412 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
2413 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2414 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2415 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
2416 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
2419 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
2421 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
2422 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
2423 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
2424 manual for more details.
2426 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2427 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2429 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
2430 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
2431 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2433 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
2435 Migrate according to the following table:
2437 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
2438 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
2439 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
2440 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
2441 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
2442 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
2443 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
2445 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
2446 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
2447 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
2448 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
2449 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
2450 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
2451 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
2453 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
2455 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
2456 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
2458 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
2459 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
2460 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
2461 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
2463 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
2465 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
2466 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
2467 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
2469 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
2470 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
2472 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
2473 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
2474 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
2475 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
2477 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
2479 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
2480 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
2481 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
2482 prevent a potential memory leak:
2489 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
2491 mem = scm_malloc (100);
2492 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
2494 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
2495 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
2502 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
2503 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
2507 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
2509 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
2511 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
2512 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
2513 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
2515 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2516 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
2518 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
2520 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
2522 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
2523 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
2524 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
2526 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
2527 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
2529 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
2530 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
2531 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
2532 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
2535 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
2537 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
2538 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2539 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
2541 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
2543 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
2544 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
2546 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
2548 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
2549 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
2551 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
2553 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
2554 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
2555 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
2557 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
2559 You should not have used them.
2561 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
2563 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
2564 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
2566 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
2568 This macro is not intended for public use.
2570 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
2572 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
2574 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
2576 Use scm_is_real instead.
2578 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
2580 Use scm_is_complex instead.
2582 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
2584 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
2585 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
2587 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
2588 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
2590 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
2591 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
2593 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
2595 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
2598 ** New function: scm_effective_version
2600 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2601 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2602 to the distribution" above.
2604 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
2606 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
2607 arguments are now passed directly:
2609 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
2611 This is an incompatible change.
2613 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
2615 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
2616 function in the init section.
2618 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
2620 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
2622 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
2623 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
2624 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
2625 stays roughly constant.
2627 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
2628 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
2629 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
2630 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
2631 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
2634 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
2635 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
2636 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
2637 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
2639 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
2640 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
2641 objects for every type.
2644 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
2646 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
2648 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
2650 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
2651 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
2652 initializes a new cell (see below).
2654 ** New functions for memory management
2656 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
2657 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
2658 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
2659 cause aborts in long running programs.
2661 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
2662 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
2664 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
2665 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
2666 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
2667 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
2668 details and for upgrading instructions.
2670 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
2671 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
2672 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
2674 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
2676 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
2677 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
2678 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
2679 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
2680 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
2682 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
2683 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
2684 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
2686 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
2687 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
2689 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
2691 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
2692 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
2693 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
2694 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
2695 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
2697 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
2699 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
2702 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
2704 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
2706 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
2708 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
2709 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
2711 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
2713 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
2714 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
2716 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
2717 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
2719 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
2721 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
2723 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
2724 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
2725 blocking it is not well defined.
2727 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
2729 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
2730 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
2731 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
2732 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
2733 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
2734 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
2735 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
2736 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
2737 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
2738 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
2739 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2740 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
2741 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
2742 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
2743 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
2744 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
2745 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
2746 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2747 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
2748 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
2749 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
2750 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
2751 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
2752 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
2753 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
2754 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
2755 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
2756 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
2757 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
2758 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
2759 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
2761 * Changes to bundled modules
2765 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
2766 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
2767 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
2768 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
2769 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
2772 Changes since Guile 1.4:
2774 * Changes to the distribution
2776 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
2778 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
2780 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
2781 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
2782 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
2783 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
2784 indicate major changes in Guile.
2786 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
2787 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
2788 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
2789 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
2791 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
2792 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
2793 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
2794 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
2795 micro version number.
2797 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
2799 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
2801 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
2802 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
2804 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
2806 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
2807 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
2808 See INSTALL and README for more information.
2810 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
2812 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
2813 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
2814 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
2817 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
2819 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
2822 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
2824 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
2825 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
2827 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
2829 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
2830 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
2833 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
2835 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
2838 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
2841 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
2843 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
2845 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
2846 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
2847 open-output-string, get-output-string.
2849 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
2851 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
2853 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
2856 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
2858 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
2860 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
2862 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
2863 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
2864 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
2866 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
2868 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
2870 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
2871 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
2880 See README there for more info.
2882 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
2883 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
2886 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
2888 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
2890 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
2892 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
2893 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
2894 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
2896 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
2898 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
2899 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
2900 to be named `and-let*', of course.
2902 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
2903 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
2905 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
2908 (oop goops describe)
2910 (oop goops active-slot)
2911 (oop goops composite-slot)
2913 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
2914 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
2915 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
2917 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
2919 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
2920 in the default environment:
2922 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
2923 %read-line write-line
2925 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
2926 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
2928 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
2930 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
2933 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
2934 can be used for similar functionality.
2936 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
2938 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
2939 it defines two procedures:
2941 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
2943 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
2944 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
2945 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
2948 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
2950 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
2951 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
2952 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
2953 write large strings.
2955 ** New module (ice-9 match)
2957 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
2958 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
2960 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
2962 for complete documentation.
2964 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
2966 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
2967 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
2968 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
2969 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
2971 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
2972 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
2976 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
2977 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
2978 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
2981 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
2984 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
2985 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
2987 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
2988 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
2991 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
2994 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
2996 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
2998 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3000 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
3002 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
3003 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
3004 Scheme programs easier.
3006 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
3007 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
3008 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
3009 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
3010 `cond-expand' when using this option.
3013 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
3014 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
3016 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
3019 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
3021 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
3022 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
3023 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
3026 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3028 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
3030 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
3031 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
3032 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
3033 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
3034 was also ASCII, for example.
3036 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
3038 tag - no replacement.
3039 fseek - replaced by seek.
3040 list* - replaced by cons*.
3042 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
3046 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
3047 (define m (make-safe-module))
3048 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
3049 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
3050 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
3052 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
3054 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
3055 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
3056 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
3058 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
3060 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
3061 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
3062 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
3063 from the issues related to the module system.
3065 *** New function: load-extension
3067 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
3069 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
3071 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
3072 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
3073 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
3075 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
3077 This function registers a initialization function for use by
3078 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
3079 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
3080 support dynamic linking).
3082 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
3084 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
3085 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
3086 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
3087 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
3090 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
3091 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
3092 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
3093 library and initialize it explicitly.
3095 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
3096 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
3098 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
3100 (define-module (foo bar))
3102 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
3104 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
3106 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
3107 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
3109 (scheme-report-environment 5)
3110 (null-environment 5)
3111 (interaction-environment)
3117 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
3119 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
3120 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
3121 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
3122 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
3124 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
3125 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
3126 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
3127 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
3128 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
3129 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
3130 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
3131 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
3132 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
3133 one eval to the next.
3135 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
3136 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
3137 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
3138 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
3139 subforms are at the top-level as well.
3141 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
3142 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
3143 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
3144 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
3145 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
3146 used in a lexical environment.
3148 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
3149 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
3150 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
3151 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
3152 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
3153 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
3155 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
3157 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
3158 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
3159 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
3160 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
3161 new facilities: selection and renaming.
3163 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
3164 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
3165 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
3167 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
3168 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
3170 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
3171 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
3172 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3174 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3175 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
3177 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
3178 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
3179 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
3180 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
3183 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3184 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
3185 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
3186 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3188 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3189 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3190 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
3192 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3193 ;; and all four by upcasing.
3194 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
3195 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
3196 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
3198 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3200 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3201 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3202 :renamer upcase-symbol))
3204 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
3205 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
3206 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
3208 See manual for more info.
3210 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
3212 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
3213 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
3214 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
3216 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
3218 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
3219 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
3220 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
3222 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
3223 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
3224 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
3225 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
3227 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
3229 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
3230 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
3232 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
3233 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
3234 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
3235 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
3236 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
3239 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
3240 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
3241 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
3242 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
3243 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
3244 successful and #f if it wasn't.
3246 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
3247 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
3248 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
3249 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
3250 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
3252 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
3253 objects are usually permanent.
3255 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
3256 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
3258 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
3260 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
3261 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
3264 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
3268 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
3273 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
3275 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
3276 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
3277 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
3278 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
3280 ** New function `make-object-property'
3282 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
3283 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
3287 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
3288 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
3292 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
3293 source properties eventually.
3295 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
3297 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
3298 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
3299 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
3301 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
3302 will be removed in the next release.
3304 ** New define-module option: pure
3306 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
3311 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
3314 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
3316 Export names NAME1 ...
3318 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
3319 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
3323 (define-module (foo)
3325 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
3328 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
3333 ** New function: object->string OBJ
3335 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
3337 ** New function: port? X
3339 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
3340 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
3342 ** New function: file-port?
3344 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
3346 ** New function: port-for-each proc
3348 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
3349 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
3350 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
3351 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
3352 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
3354 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
3356 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
3357 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
3358 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
3359 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
3360 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
3363 ** New function: close-fdes fd
3365 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
3366 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
3367 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
3368 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
3371 ** New function: crypt password salt
3373 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
3376 ** New function: chroot path
3378 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
3380 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
3382 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
3385 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
3387 Get or set the priority of the running process.
3389 ** New function: getpass prompt
3391 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
3394 ** New function: flock file operation
3396 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
3398 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
3400 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
3403 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
3405 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
3406 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
3407 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
3408 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
3409 of the temporary file.
3411 ** New function: open-input-string string
3413 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
3414 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
3415 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
3417 ** New function: open-output-string
3419 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
3420 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
3422 ** New function: get-output-string
3424 Return the contents of an output string port.
3426 ** New function: identity
3428 Return the argument.
3430 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
3431 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
3433 ** New function: inet-pton family address
3435 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
3436 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
3437 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3440 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
3441 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
3443 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
3445 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
3446 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
3447 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3450 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
3451 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
3452 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
3456 Use `identity' instead.
3462 ** Deprecated: return-it
3466 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
3468 Use `string-length' instead.
3470 ** Deprecated: flags
3472 Use `logior' instead.
3474 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
3476 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
3477 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
3478 port-for-each is more flexible.
3480 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
3481 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
3482 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
3484 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
3486 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
3488 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
3490 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
3492 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
3494 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
3495 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
3497 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
3498 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
3500 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
3501 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
3503 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
3505 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
3506 Removed function: builtin-bindings
3508 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
3509 Use module system operations for all variables.
3511 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
3513 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
3516 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
3518 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
3519 The following bugs have been fixed:
3521 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
3522 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
3525 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
3526 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
3527 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
3529 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
3530 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
3532 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
3533 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
3536 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
3537 The expansion used to be like so:
3539 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
3541 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
3543 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
3545 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
3546 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
3548 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
3550 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
3551 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
3552 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
3556 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
3557 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
3559 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
3564 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
3565 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
3567 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
3568 and `d', other keywords allowed.
3569 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
3571 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
3574 * Changes to the C interface
3576 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
3578 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
3579 with "_t". What a concept.
3581 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
3583 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
3585 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
3589 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
3590 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
3592 *** C Functions removed
3594 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
3595 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
3596 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
3597 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
3598 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
3599 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
3600 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
3602 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
3604 Use scm_mem2string instead.
3606 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
3608 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
3610 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
3611 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
3613 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
3615 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
3618 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
3620 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
3622 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
3624 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
3625 Evaluation" in the manual.
3627 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
3629 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
3630 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
3632 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
3634 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
3635 Constructors" in the manual.
3637 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
3639 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
3640 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
3642 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
3644 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
3646 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
3647 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
3648 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
3650 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
3652 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
3654 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
3655 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
3656 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
3659 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
3661 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
3663 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
3664 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
3666 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
3668 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
3669 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
3670 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
3671 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
3673 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
3674 scm_primitive_property_ref
3675 scm_primitive_property_set_x
3676 scm_primitive_property_del_x
3678 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
3679 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
3681 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
3683 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
3684 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
3685 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
3686 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
3688 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
3690 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
3691 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
3692 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
3693 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
3694 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
3695 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
3696 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
3698 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
3699 scm_remember_upto_here
3701 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
3703 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
3705 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
3706 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
3708 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
3710 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
3712 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
3714 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
3716 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
3718 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
3719 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
3720 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
3721 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
3722 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
3723 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
3725 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
3727 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
3729 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
3730 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
3731 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
3733 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
3735 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
3736 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
3737 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
3739 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
3741 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
3742 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
3745 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
3748 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
3749 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
3752 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
3754 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
3756 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
3758 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
3760 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
3762 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
3764 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
3765 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
3766 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
3767 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3768 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
3769 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
3770 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
3771 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3772 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
3773 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
3774 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
3775 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
3776 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
3777 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
3778 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
3780 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
3781 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
3782 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
3783 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
3784 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
3785 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
3786 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
3787 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
3788 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
3789 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
3790 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
3791 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
3792 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
3793 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
3794 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
3795 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
3796 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
3797 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
3798 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
3799 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
3800 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
3801 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
3802 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
3803 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
3804 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
3805 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
3806 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
3807 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
3808 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
3810 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
3812 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
3814 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
3815 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
3817 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
3819 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
3821 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
3823 Use scm_string_hash instead.
3825 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
3827 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
3829 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
3831 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
3833 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
3836 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
3837 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
3839 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
3841 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
3843 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
3845 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
3847 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
3849 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
3851 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
3853 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
3856 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
3858 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
3860 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
3862 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
3863 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
3865 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
3866 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
3868 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
3870 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
3871 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
3872 scm_module_define, scm_define.
3874 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
3876 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
3878 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
3879 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
3881 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
3882 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
3883 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
3884 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
3886 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
3887 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
3888 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
3890 Use the new ones from above instead.
3892 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
3894 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
3895 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
3896 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
3898 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
3899 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
3901 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
3902 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
3905 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
3906 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
3908 Use the new functions instead.
3910 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
3913 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
3915 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
3917 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
3920 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
3922 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
3925 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
3927 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
3930 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
3931 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
3932 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
3934 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
3936 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
3937 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
3939 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
3940 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
3941 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
3942 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
3945 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
3947 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
3948 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
3949 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
3950 inexact for an exact.
3952 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
3953 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
3954 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
3957 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
3958 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
3959 accept an inexact argument.
3961 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
3962 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
3964 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
3967 ** New number validation macros:
3968 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
3972 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
3974 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
3975 scm_unprotect_object.
3977 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
3979 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
3981 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
3984 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
3986 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
3990 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
3992 * Changes to the distribution
3994 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
3996 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
3997 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
3998 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
3999 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
4000 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
4001 obtain these programs.
4002 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
4003 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
4005 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
4006 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
4007 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
4008 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
4009 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
4011 However, this approach means that minor differences between
4012 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
4013 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
4014 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
4018 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
4021 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
4022 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
4023 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
4024 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
4026 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
4028 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
4030 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
4031 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
4033 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
4034 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
4036 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
4037 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
4039 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
4040 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
4041 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
4042 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
4044 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
4046 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
4050 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
4051 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
4053 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
4055 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
4056 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
4058 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
4059 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
4060 number of objects of that kind.
4062 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
4064 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
4065 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
4066 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
4067 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
4068 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
4070 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
4072 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
4074 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
4076 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
4079 ** New module (ice-9 time)
4081 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
4083 ** New module (ice-9 history)
4085 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
4087 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4089 ** New command line option --debug
4091 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
4093 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
4095 ** New help facility
4097 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
4098 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
4099 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
4100 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
4101 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
4102 (help) gives this text
4104 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
4105 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
4107 Examples: (help help)
4109 (help "output-string")
4111 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
4113 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
4115 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
4116 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
4119 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
4120 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
4121 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
4124 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
4125 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
4126 use absolute filenames when possible.
4128 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
4129 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
4130 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
4133 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
4135 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
4136 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
4137 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
4138 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
4140 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
4142 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
4144 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
4145 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
4146 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
4148 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
4149 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
4150 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
4152 (read-enable 'positions)
4153 (debug-enable 'debug)
4155 ** Backtraces in scripts
4157 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
4161 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
4163 at the top of the script.
4165 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
4166 The second enables backtraces.)
4168 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
4170 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
4171 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
4172 substantially faster than before.
4174 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
4175 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
4177 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
4178 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
4180 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
4182 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
4183 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
4184 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
4186 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
4187 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
4188 when this hook is run in the future.
4190 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
4191 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
4193 ** Improvements to garbage collector
4195 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
4196 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
4199 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
4200 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
4201 more and more memory for certain programs.)
4203 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
4204 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
4206 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
4207 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
4209 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
4210 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
4211 in order not to need further allocation.)
4213 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
4216 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
4217 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
4218 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
4219 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
4221 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
4223 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
4226 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
4228 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
4231 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
4232 GC in percent of total heap size
4235 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
4236 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
4238 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
4240 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
4241 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
4243 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
4245 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
4246 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
4248 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
4250 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
4251 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
4255 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
4256 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
4258 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
4260 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4262 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
4264 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
4266 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
4268 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
4269 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
4271 (simple-format port message . args)
4272 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
4273 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
4274 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
4275 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
4276 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
4277 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
4278 Does not add a trailing newline."
4280 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
4282 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
4283 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
4285 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
4286 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
4288 ** Deprecated: list*
4290 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
4292 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
4294 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
4295 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
4297 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
4298 is returned as result.
4300 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
4302 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
4304 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
4306 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
4307 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
4310 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
4312 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
4314 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
4315 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
4317 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4319 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
4321 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
4323 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4325 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
4327 Thanks to Greg Badros!
4329 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4331 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4332 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
4333 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
4335 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
4338 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
4340 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
4341 the readability of argument checking.
4343 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
4345 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
4347 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
4349 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
4350 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
4351 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
4352 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
4353 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
4354 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
4355 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
4357 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
4359 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
4361 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
4362 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
4364 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
4366 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
4367 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
4370 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
4372 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
4373 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
4374 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
4376 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
4377 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
4378 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
4380 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
4381 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
4382 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
4383 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
4384 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
4385 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
4386 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
4388 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
4389 scm_end_input (object);
4390 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
4391 ptob->flush (object);
4393 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
4394 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
4397 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
4399 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
4401 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
4402 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
4403 removed in a future version.
4405 ** The format of error message strings has changed
4407 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
4408 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
4409 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
4410 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
4412 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
4413 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
4415 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
4418 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
4420 in your configure.in.
4422 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
4427 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
4433 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
4435 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
4439 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
4440 (define make-message string-append)
4442 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
4444 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
4448 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
4453 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
4457 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
4459 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
4460 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
4462 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
4464 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
4465 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
4466 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
4467 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
4468 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
4469 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
4471 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
4472 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
4473 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
4475 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
4476 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
4477 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
4480 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
4481 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
4482 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
4483 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
4484 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
4486 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
4487 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
4488 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
4489 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
4490 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
4491 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
4492 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
4494 Destructors are not yet implemented.
4496 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
4497 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
4498 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
4500 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
4501 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
4502 KEY in the calling thread.
4504 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
4505 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
4506 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
4507 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
4508 associated with the key.
4510 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
4512 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
4513 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
4515 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
4517 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
4518 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
4519 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
4521 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
4523 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
4524 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
4526 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
4528 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
4530 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
4531 returned is undefined.
4533 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
4534 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
4535 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
4537 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
4538 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
4539 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
4541 ** New C level GC hooks
4543 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
4545 scm_before_gc_c_hook
4548 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
4549 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
4550 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
4552 scm_before_mark_c_hook
4553 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
4554 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
4556 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
4557 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
4560 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
4562 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
4563 allocation parameters
4565 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
4566 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
4567 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
4571 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
4572 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
4573 scm_default_max_segment_size
4575 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
4577 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
4578 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
4580 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
4582 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
4583 object and count on the object being protected until
4584 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
4586 The functions also have better time complexity.
4588 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
4589 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
4590 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
4591 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
4592 are no longer needed.
4594 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
4596 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
4597 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
4598 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
4599 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
4601 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
4603 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
4605 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
4607 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
4608 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
4609 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
4610 until this issue has been settled.
4612 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
4614 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
4616 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
4619 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
4621 * Changes to system call interfaces:
4623 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
4624 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
4625 descriptors were checked.
4627 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
4628 atomically written to a pipe.
4630 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
4631 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
4632 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
4633 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
4634 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
4635 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
4636 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
4639 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
4640 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
4641 is changed without calling tzset.
4643 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
4645 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
4646 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
4647 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
4649 (define write-network-long
4650 (lambda (value port)
4651 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
4652 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
4653 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
4655 (define read-network-long
4657 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
4658 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
4659 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
4661 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
4662 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
4664 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
4665 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
4666 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
4667 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
4669 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
4670 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
4671 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
4672 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
4676 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
4678 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4682 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
4683 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
4684 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
4690 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
4691 for a description of available commands.
4693 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
4694 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
4695 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
4697 (debug-enable 'backwards)
4699 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
4700 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
4702 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
4704 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
4706 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
4707 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
4708 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
4709 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
4710 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
4711 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
4714 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
4716 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
4717 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
4718 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
4719 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
4721 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
4722 the file and should not be affected by this change.
4724 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
4726 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4728 ** Readline support has changed again.
4730 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
4731 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
4732 to activate readline is now
4734 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
4737 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
4739 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
4740 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
4741 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
4744 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
4745 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
4746 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
4749 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
4750 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
4751 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
4752 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
4753 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
4754 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
4756 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
4757 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
4759 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
4761 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
4762 object it receives is the same string passed to
4763 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
4764 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
4765 string, not the suffix.
4767 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
4768 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
4769 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
4771 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
4773 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
4774 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
4775 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
4776 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
4779 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
4781 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
4783 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
4784 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
4785 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
4786 appear from left to right.
4788 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
4791 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
4793 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
4794 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
4796 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
4800 *** New function: hook? OBJ
4802 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
4804 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
4806 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
4807 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
4808 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
4810 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
4812 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
4814 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
4816 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
4819 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
4821 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
4822 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
4823 mentioning it here anyway.
4825 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
4827 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
4828 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
4829 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
4830 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
4833 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
4835 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
4837 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
4839 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
4840 otherwise return #f.
4842 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
4844 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
4845 returned by `opendir'.
4847 ** New function: using-readline?
4849 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
4851 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
4853 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
4854 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
4856 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4858 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
4860 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
4861 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
4862 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
4864 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
4866 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
4867 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
4869 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
4871 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
4872 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
4873 documentation slots are not yet used.
4875 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
4877 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
4878 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
4879 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
4884 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
4885 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
4886 (string-append x y))
4888 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
4889 can also be used for concatenating strings.
4891 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
4892 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
4893 be made in a clean way.]
4895 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
4897 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
4899 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
4901 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
4902 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
4904 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4906 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
4908 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
4910 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
4912 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
4913 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
4914 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
4915 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
4918 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4920 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
4922 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
4924 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
4926 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
4927 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
4929 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
4931 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
4933 Evaluates the body of a special form.
4935 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
4937 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
4938 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
4939 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
4940 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
4941 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
4942 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
4944 This should not make any difference for most users.
4946 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
4948 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
4949 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
4951 *** New functions for applying generic functions
4953 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
4954 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
4955 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
4956 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
4957 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
4959 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
4961 It is now replaced by:
4963 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
4965 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4966 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4968 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4970 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
4971 This might change when we get the new module system.
4973 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
4977 Changes since Guile 1.3:
4979 * Changes to mailing lists
4981 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
4983 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
4986 * Changes to the distribution
4988 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
4990 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
4991 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
4992 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
4993 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
4994 you explicitly specify it.
4996 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
4997 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
4998 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
4999 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
5000 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
5003 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
5004 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
5005 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
5006 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
5008 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
5009 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
5010 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
5013 You can activate the readline support by issuing
5015 (use-modules (readline-activator))
5018 from your ".guile" file, for example.
5020 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5022 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
5023 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
5024 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
5025 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
5027 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
5028 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
5031 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5033 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
5034 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
5035 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
5036 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
5037 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
5038 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
5039 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
5040 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
5052 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
5053 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
5054 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
5055 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
5056 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
5061 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
5062 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
5070 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
5075 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
5076 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
5079 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
5080 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
5081 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
5082 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
5084 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
5086 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
5088 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
5089 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
5091 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
5093 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
5095 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
5096 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
5098 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
5101 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
5103 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
5105 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
5107 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
5109 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
5111 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
5113 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
5114 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
5115 when the hook was created.
5117 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
5118 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
5119 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
5120 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
5121 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
5122 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
5123 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
5124 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
5125 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
5127 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
5128 the dlopen family of functions.
5130 ** New function `provided?'
5132 - Function: provided? FEATURE
5133 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
5134 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
5135 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
5137 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
5139 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
5140 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
5141 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
5142 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5145 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5146 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
5147 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
5148 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
5150 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
5151 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
5152 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
5155 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
5156 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
5157 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
5158 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
5159 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
5160 but with the flag set.
5162 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
5164 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
5165 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
5167 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
5168 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
5169 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
5170 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
5171 available Scheme format implementations.
5173 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
5174 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
5175 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
5176 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
5177 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
5178 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
5179 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
5180 output is to the current error port if available by the
5181 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
5184 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
5185 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
5186 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
5187 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
5188 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
5189 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
5190 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
5191 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
5193 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
5194 be executed at a time.
5197 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
5199 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
5200 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
5201 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
5203 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
5204 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
5205 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
5206 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
5207 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
5208 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
5209 general form of a directive is:
5211 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
5213 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
5215 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5217 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
5218 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
5219 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
5222 Any (print as `display' does).
5226 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
5230 S-expression (print as `write' does).
5234 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
5240 print number sign always.
5243 print comma separated.
5245 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
5251 print number sign always.
5254 print comma separated.
5256 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
5262 print number sign always.
5265 print comma separated.
5267 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
5273 print number sign always.
5276 print comma separated.
5278 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
5283 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
5287 print a number as a Roman numeral.
5290 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
5293 print a number as an ordinal English number.
5296 print a number as a cardinal English number.
5301 prints `y' and `ies'.
5304 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5307 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5312 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
5316 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
5319 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
5320 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
5322 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5325 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
5326 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
5328 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5331 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
5333 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
5335 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5338 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
5340 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
5342 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5345 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
5348 The sign appears before the padding.
5356 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
5358 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
5363 print N page separators.
5373 newline is ignored, white space left.
5376 newline is left, white space ignored.
5381 relative tabulation.
5387 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
5389 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
5392 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
5394 converts by `string-capitalize'.
5397 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
5400 converts by `string-upcase'.
5403 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
5405 jumps N arguments forward.
5408 jumps 1 argument backward.
5411 jumps N arguments backward.
5414 jumps to the 0th argument.
5417 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
5419 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
5420 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
5422 take argument from N.
5425 true test conditional.
5428 if-else-then conditional.
5434 default clause follows.
5437 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
5439 at most N iterations.
5442 args from next arg (a list of lists).
5445 args from the rest of arguments.
5448 args from the rest args (lists).
5459 aborts if N <= M <= K
5461 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5464 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5467 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5473 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
5475 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
5477 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
5478 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
5479 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
5480 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
5481 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
5482 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
5486 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
5490 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
5496 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
5499 Print a `#\space' character
5501 print N `#\space' characters.
5504 Print a `#\tab' character
5506 print N `#\tab' characters.
5509 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
5510 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
5511 must be a positive decimal number.
5514 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5515 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5516 be processed by `read'.
5519 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5520 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5521 be processed by `read'.
5524 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
5527 prints format version.
5530 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
5531 and format it accordingly.
5533 *** Configuration Variables
5535 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
5536 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
5537 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
5538 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
5541 format:symbol-case-conv
5542 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
5543 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
5544 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
5545 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
5546 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
5548 format:iobj-case-conv
5549 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
5550 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
5553 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
5556 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
5562 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
5563 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
5564 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
5565 `format' padding style.
5568 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
5569 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
5570 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
5571 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
5575 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
5576 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
5577 directive parameters or modifiers)).
5580 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
5581 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
5582 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
5583 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
5584 parameters or modifiers)).
5587 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
5589 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
5591 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
5592 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
5594 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
5595 string-downcase! functions.
5597 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
5598 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
5600 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
5603 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
5606 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
5607 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
5609 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
5611 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
5612 the symbol had be read by `read'.
5614 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
5615 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
5616 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
5617 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
5618 would if STRING were input.
5620 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
5622 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
5623 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
5624 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
5625 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
5628 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
5630 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
5631 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
5634 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
5636 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
5637 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
5639 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
5640 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
5642 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
5643 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
5644 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
5645 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
5647 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
5648 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
5650 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
5651 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
5652 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
5654 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
5655 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
5657 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
5658 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
5659 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
5660 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
5661 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
5663 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
5664 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
5665 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
5666 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
5667 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
5668 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
5670 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
5671 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
5672 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
5675 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
5676 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
5677 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
5678 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
5679 the following grammar:
5680 ((apples (single-char #\a))
5681 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
5682 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
5683 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
5684 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
5685 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
5686 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
5687 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
5688 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
5689 last option in its combination)
5691 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
5692 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
5693 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
5694 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
5696 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
5697 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
5698 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
5700 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
5701 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
5702 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
5704 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
5705 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
5706 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
5707 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
5708 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
5709 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
5710 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
5711 ordinary argument strings.
5713 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
5714 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
5715 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
5716 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
5718 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
5719 as a list, associated with the empty list.
5721 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
5722 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
5723 - a required option is omitted
5724 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
5725 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
5726 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
5727 - an option predicate fails
5732 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
5735 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
5736 (verbose (required? #f)
5739 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
5740 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
5741 (predicate ,string?))))
5743 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
5744 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
5746 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
5747 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
5748 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
5749 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
5752 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
5754 It will be removed in a few releases.
5756 ** New syntax: lambda*
5757 ** New syntax: define*
5758 ** New syntax: define*-public
5759 ** New syntax: defmacro*
5760 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
5761 Guile now supports optional arguments.
5763 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
5764 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
5765 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
5766 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
5767 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
5769 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
5770 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
5771 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
5773 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
5775 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
5776 and examples for `lambda*':
5779 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
5781 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
5782 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
5783 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
5784 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
5785 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
5786 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
5787 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
5788 can be checked with the bound? macro.
5790 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
5792 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
5793 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
5794 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
5795 are given as keywords are bound to values.
5797 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
5798 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
5799 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
5800 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
5801 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
5802 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
5803 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
5804 and until the procedure is called.
5806 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
5808 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
5809 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
5810 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
5811 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
5812 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
5813 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
5814 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
5815 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
5816 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
5817 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
5819 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
5820 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
5821 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
5822 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
5825 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
5827 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
5828 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
5829 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
5830 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
5832 ** New syntax: and-let*
5833 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
5835 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
5836 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
5837 (<variable> <expression>)
5840 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
5841 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
5842 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
5845 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
5846 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
5847 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
5848 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
5849 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
5850 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
5851 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
5853 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
5854 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
5855 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
5856 shadow earlier bindings.
5858 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
5860 ** New sorting functions
5862 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
5863 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
5864 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
5865 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
5867 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
5868 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
5871 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
5872 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
5873 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
5875 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
5876 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
5877 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
5878 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
5880 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
5881 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
5882 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
5883 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
5884 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
5887 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
5888 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
5889 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
5890 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
5891 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
5892 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
5894 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
5895 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
5896 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
5898 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
5899 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
5900 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
5903 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
5904 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
5905 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
5907 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
5908 Added for compatibility with scsh.
5910 ** New built-in random number support
5912 *** New function: random N [STATE]
5913 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
5914 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
5915 returned have a uniform distribution.
5917 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
5918 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
5919 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
5920 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
5921 effect of the `random' operation.
5923 *** New variable: *random-state*
5924 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
5925 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
5926 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
5927 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
5928 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
5931 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
5932 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
5933 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
5934 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
5935 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
5937 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
5938 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
5939 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
5940 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
5941 initialized using SEED.
5943 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
5944 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
5945 range between 0 and 1.
5947 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
5948 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
5949 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
5950 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
5951 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
5952 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
5953 or a uniform vector of doubles.
5955 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
5956 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
5957 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
5958 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
5959 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
5960 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
5962 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
5963 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
5964 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
5965 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
5967 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
5968 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
5969 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
5970 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
5972 *** New function: random:exp STATE
5973 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
5974 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
5976 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
5978 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
5981 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
5982 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
5985 ** New function: make-guardian
5986 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
5987 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
5988 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
5989 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
5990 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
5992 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
5993 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
5994 one object if at all.
5996 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
5997 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
5998 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
6000 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
6001 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
6002 read again in last-in first-out order.
6004 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
6005 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
6007 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
6009 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
6010 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
6011 file position is used.
6013 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
6014 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
6015 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
6017 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
6018 redefined using seek.
6020 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
6021 size is not supplied.
6023 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
6024 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
6026 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
6027 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
6029 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
6031 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
6032 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
6033 and returns the contents as a single string.
6035 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
6036 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
6037 lists in serial order.
6039 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
6040 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
6041 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
6043 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
6044 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
6045 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
6046 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
6048 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
6049 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
6050 and #f if an error occured.
6052 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
6054 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
6055 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
6056 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
6057 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
6059 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
6061 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
6064 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
6066 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
6069 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6073 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
6074 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
6076 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
6077 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
6081 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6083 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
6085 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
6086 binds a variable named NAME to it.
6088 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
6090 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
6091 might change when we get the new module system.
6093 ** The smob interface
6095 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
6096 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
6098 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
6100 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
6104 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
6105 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
6106 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
6107 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
6108 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
6109 will be freed by the default free function.
6111 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6112 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
6113 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6114 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6116 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6117 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
6118 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6119 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6121 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
6123 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
6124 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
6128 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
6129 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6130 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6132 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
6133 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
6134 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6135 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6137 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
6138 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
6139 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
6141 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
6142 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
6143 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
6144 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
6146 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
6147 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
6148 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
6150 *** scm_newptob has been removed
6154 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
6156 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
6157 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
6158 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
6160 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
6161 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
6162 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
6164 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
6165 a string port's buffer.
6167 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
6168 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
6169 function pointers which together define the current random number
6170 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
6171 number library functions.
6173 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
6176 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
6177 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
6180 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
6181 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6183 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
6184 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
6186 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
6187 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
6190 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
6191 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
6192 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
6193 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
6195 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
6196 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
6197 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
6198 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
6199 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
6200 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
6201 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
6203 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
6204 by libguile and the application.
6206 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6207 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6208 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
6209 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
6211 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
6212 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
6214 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6215 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
6216 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
6218 ** Random number library functions
6219 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
6220 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
6221 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
6223 The default random state is stored in:
6225 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
6226 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
6227 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
6232 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
6234 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
6235 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
6236 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
6237 isn't a random state.
6239 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
6240 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
6242 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
6243 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
6244 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
6245 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
6247 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6248 Return 32 random bits.
6250 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6251 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
6253 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6254 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
6256 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6257 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
6259 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
6260 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6262 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
6263 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6264 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
6268 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
6270 * Changes to the distribution
6272 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
6273 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
6274 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
6277 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
6278 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
6279 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
6281 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
6282 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
6283 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
6284 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
6287 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
6288 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
6289 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
6291 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6293 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
6295 *** Function: batch-mode?
6297 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
6300 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
6302 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
6303 case has not been implemented.
6305 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
6306 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
6307 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
6310 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
6311 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
6313 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
6315 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6317 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
6319 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
6320 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
6323 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
6324 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
6325 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
6326 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
6329 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
6331 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
6332 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
6333 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
6334 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
6335 find those libraries.
6337 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
6338 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
6341 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
6343 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
6344 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
6345 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
6346 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
6348 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
6349 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
6350 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
6354 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
6356 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
6357 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
6358 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
6361 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
6362 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
6363 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
6364 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
6366 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
6367 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
6370 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
6371 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
6372 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
6373 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
6374 compiler where to find the libraries.
6376 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
6377 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
6378 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
6380 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
6381 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
6382 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
6383 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
6384 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
6388 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6390 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
6391 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
6392 internationalization support.
6394 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
6395 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
6396 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
6397 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
6398 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
6400 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
6401 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
6402 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
6403 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
6404 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
6406 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
6407 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
6408 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
6409 any GNU mirror site.
6411 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
6413 ** New function: add-history STRING
6414 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
6415 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
6416 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
6418 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
6420 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
6421 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
6422 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
6425 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
6426 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
6427 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
6429 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
6431 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
6434 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
6435 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
6438 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
6439 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
6440 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
6441 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
6442 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
6443 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
6445 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
6446 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
6447 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
6448 of the form mentioned above.
6450 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
6451 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
6452 returned in the special `rest' list.
6454 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
6455 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
6457 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
6459 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
6461 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
6463 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
6464 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
6465 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
6466 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
6467 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
6468 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
6469 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
6470 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
6473 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
6475 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
6477 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
6478 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
6481 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
6482 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
6483 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
6487 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
6488 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
6489 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
6490 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
6491 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
6492 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
6493 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
6494 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
6497 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
6499 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
6500 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
6501 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
6503 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
6505 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
6506 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
6508 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
6509 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
6510 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
6512 Why do we have this function?
6513 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
6514 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
6515 primitive, and display it differently, and
6516 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
6517 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
6520 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
6521 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
6524 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
6525 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
6526 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
6527 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
6529 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
6530 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
6533 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
6534 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
6536 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
6538 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
6539 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
6540 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
6541 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
6542 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
6543 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
6544 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
6547 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
6549 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
6550 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
6552 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
6553 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
6554 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
6555 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
6556 properly continue the print chain.
6558 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
6559 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
6560 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
6561 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
6562 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
6563 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
6564 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
6565 print-state, it is simply ignored.
6567 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
6568 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
6569 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
6570 safest to not check for these pairs.
6572 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
6573 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
6574 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
6575 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
6577 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
6579 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
6580 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
6582 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
6584 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
6586 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
6587 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
6588 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
6590 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
6591 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
6592 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
6594 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
6595 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
6596 the following functions and macros:
6598 Function: make-fluid
6600 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
6601 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
6602 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
6603 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
6604 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
6606 Function: fluid? OBJ
6608 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
6610 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
6611 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
6613 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
6614 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
6616 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
6618 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
6619 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
6620 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
6621 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
6622 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
6623 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
6624 modified by `with-fluids*'.
6626 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
6628 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
6629 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
6630 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
6631 should evaluate to a fluid.
6633 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
6635 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
6636 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
6637 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
6638 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
6639 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
6641 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
6644 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
6646 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
6648 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
6650 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
6653 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
6654 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
6655 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
6656 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
6657 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
6660 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
6661 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
6662 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
6664 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
6665 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
6666 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
6668 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
6669 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
6670 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
6671 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
6673 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
6674 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
6675 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
6676 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
6678 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
6679 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
6680 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
6681 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
6683 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
6684 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
6685 their revealed counts set to zero.
6687 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6688 Returns an integer file descriptor.
6690 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6691 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
6693 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6694 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
6696 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
6697 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
6698 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
6700 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
6701 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
6702 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
6704 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
6705 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
6706 default environment inherited by child processes.
6708 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
6709 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
6710 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
6712 The return value is unspecified.
6714 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
6715 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
6716 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
6717 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
6718 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
6720 The return value is unspecified.
6722 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
6723 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
6731 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
6732 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
6735 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
6738 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
6739 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
6740 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
6742 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
6743 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
6744 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
6745 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
6748 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
6749 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
6751 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
6752 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
6753 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
6754 the `environ' procedure.
6756 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
6757 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
6760 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
6761 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
6763 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
6764 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
6765 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
6766 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
6768 *** procedure: times
6769 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
6770 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
6771 return a selected component:
6774 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
6778 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
6781 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
6785 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
6786 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
6790 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
6791 terminated child processes.
6793 ** Removed: list-length
6794 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
6795 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
6797 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
6799 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
6801 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
6803 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
6804 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
6805 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
6806 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
6808 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
6809 extra complexity it introduces.
6811 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
6812 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
6814 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
6815 variable to any non-empty value.
6817 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
6818 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
6820 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6822 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
6823 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
6825 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
6827 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
6828 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
6830 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
6832 ** vector handling routines
6834 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
6835 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
6836 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
6837 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
6838 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
6840 ** pair and list routines
6842 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
6845 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
6847 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
6850 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6852 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
6854 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
6855 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
6856 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
6857 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
6858 site-specific initialization code.
6860 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
6861 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
6862 initialization processes.
6864 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
6865 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
6866 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
6867 initialized properly.
6869 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
6870 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
6871 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
6873 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
6874 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
6875 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
6876 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
6877 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
6879 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
6881 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
6882 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
6883 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
6884 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
6885 objects the smob refers to get marked.
6887 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
6888 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
6889 which look like this:
6892 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
6894 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
6895 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
6898 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
6899 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
6902 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
6904 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
6905 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
6906 you will need to change your functions slightly.
6908 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
6909 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
6910 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
6911 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
6912 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
6914 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
6915 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
6917 int (*free) (SCM port);
6918 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
6919 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
6920 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
6924 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
6925 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
6926 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
6928 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
6931 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
6932 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
6933 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
6935 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
6936 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
6937 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
6940 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
6944 struct timeval *timeout);
6946 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
6947 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
6948 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
6949 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
6950 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
6951 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
6953 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
6954 scm_catch_body_t body,
6956 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
6959 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
6960 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
6961 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
6962 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
6963 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
6964 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
6966 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
6968 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
6971 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
6972 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
6973 spawning threads from application C code.
6975 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
6976 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
6977 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
6978 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
6979 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
6980 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
6982 ** Removed functions:
6984 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
6985 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
6987 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
6989 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
6990 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
6992 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
6994 ** mbstrings are now removed
6996 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
6997 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
6999 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
7001 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
7002 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
7003 their new names and arguments:
7005 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
7006 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
7007 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
7008 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
7011 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
7013 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
7015 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
7018 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
7020 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
7021 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
7022 pass a #f arg to catch.
7024 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
7026 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
7027 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
7030 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
7031 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
7032 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
7033 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
7034 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
7035 reclaim its storage.
7037 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
7038 worrying that some other function you call will call
7039 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
7040 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
7041 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
7042 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
7045 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
7047 * Changes to the distribution
7049 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
7050 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
7053 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
7054 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
7056 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7057 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7059 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
7061 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
7062 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
7063 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
7065 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7067 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
7068 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
7069 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
7070 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
7071 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
7072 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
7074 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
7075 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
7076 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
7079 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
7080 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
7081 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
7082 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
7084 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
7085 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
7086 libraries to your link command:
7088 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
7089 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
7090 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7091 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7093 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
7094 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
7095 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
7097 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7099 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
7100 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
7103 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
7105 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
7106 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
7107 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
7108 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
7109 searched is system dependent.
7111 (dynamic-object? VAL)
7113 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
7115 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
7117 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
7118 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
7120 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7122 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
7123 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
7124 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
7125 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
7126 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
7129 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7131 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
7132 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
7133 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
7134 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
7135 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
7137 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
7139 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
7140 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
7142 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
7144 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
7145 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
7146 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
7149 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
7151 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
7152 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
7153 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
7154 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
7156 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
7157 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
7159 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
7161 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
7162 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
7164 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
7166 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
7167 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
7175 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
7177 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
7178 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
7179 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
7180 a more informative way.
7182 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
7183 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
7184 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
7185 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
7186 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
7187 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
7189 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
7190 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
7193 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
7194 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
7195 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
7198 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
7199 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
7200 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
7201 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
7202 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
7203 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
7205 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
7206 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
7207 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
7208 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
7211 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
7212 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
7213 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
7214 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
7215 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
7216 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
7218 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
7219 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
7220 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
7221 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
7222 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
7224 *** regexp functions
7226 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
7227 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
7228 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
7230 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
7231 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
7232 with SCSH regular expressions.
7234 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
7235 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
7236 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
7237 position of STR at which to begin matching.
7239 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
7240 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
7241 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
7242 `string-match' returns `#f'.
7244 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
7245 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
7246 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
7247 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
7248 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
7249 match strings against the compiled regexp.
7251 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
7252 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
7253 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
7254 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
7255 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
7257 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7259 **** Constant: regexp/extended
7260 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
7261 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
7262 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
7264 **** Constant: regexp/icase
7265 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
7266 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
7268 **** Constant: regexp/newline
7269 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
7271 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
7274 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
7275 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7276 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
7278 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
7279 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7280 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
7282 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
7283 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
7284 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
7285 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
7286 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
7289 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7291 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
7292 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
7293 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
7294 used when different portions of a string are passed to
7295 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
7296 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
7298 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
7299 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
7300 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
7302 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
7303 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
7306 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
7307 and replace them with the contents of another string.
7309 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
7310 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
7311 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
7312 may be one of the following arguments:
7314 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
7316 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
7318 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
7319 the regexp match is written.
7321 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
7322 following the regexp match is written.
7324 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
7325 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
7328 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
7329 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
7330 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
7331 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
7332 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
7333 which should be matched against this regular expression.
7335 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
7338 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
7339 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
7340 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
7341 written out to PORT.
7343 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
7344 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
7345 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
7346 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
7347 will return after processing a single match.
7349 *** Match Structures
7351 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
7352 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
7353 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
7354 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
7355 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
7356 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
7359 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
7360 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
7361 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
7362 information about the original target string that was matched against a
7363 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
7365 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
7366 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
7367 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
7369 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
7370 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
7371 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
7372 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
7373 number N did not match, return `#f'.
7375 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
7376 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
7378 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
7379 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
7381 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
7382 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
7384 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
7385 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
7387 **** Function: match:count MATCH
7388 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
7389 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
7390 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
7392 **** Function: match:string MATCH
7393 Return the original TARGET string.
7395 *** Backslash Escapes
7397 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
7398 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
7399 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
7400 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
7401 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
7402 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
7404 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
7405 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
7406 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
7407 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
7408 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
7409 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
7410 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
7411 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
7413 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
7414 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
7415 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
7416 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
7417 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
7418 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
7419 each match a single backslash in the target string.
7421 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
7422 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
7423 return the resulting string.
7425 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
7426 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
7427 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
7428 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
7429 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
7430 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
7431 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
7432 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
7433 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
7434 translated to the single character `*'.
7436 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
7437 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
7438 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
7439 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
7440 consecutive backslashes:
7442 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
7444 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
7445 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
7446 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
7448 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
7449 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
7450 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
7451 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
7452 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
7453 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
7455 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
7457 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
7458 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
7459 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
7460 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
7461 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
7462 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
7463 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
7464 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
7465 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
7466 cumbersome escape syntax.
7468 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7470 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7472 * Changes to system call interfaces:
7474 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
7477 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
7479 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
7481 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
7484 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
7485 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
7486 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
7487 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
7488 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
7490 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
7491 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
7492 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
7493 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
7494 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
7495 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
7496 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
7499 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
7500 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
7501 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
7504 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
7505 `force-output' on every port open for output.
7507 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
7508 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
7509 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
7510 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
7511 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
7512 installed, you can say:
7514 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
7517 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7519 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
7520 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
7521 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
7522 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
7523 new dynamic roots and threads.
7526 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
7528 * Changes to the distribution.
7530 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
7532 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
7533 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
7534 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
7535 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
7536 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
7537 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
7538 programming language. These are packaged together because the
7539 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
7541 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
7544 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
7545 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
7550 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
7552 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
7553 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
7555 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
7556 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
7557 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
7558 the (command-line) function.
7559 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
7560 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
7561 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
7563 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
7564 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
7565 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
7566 command line arguments
7567 -ds do -s script at this point
7568 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
7569 -h, --help display this help and exit
7570 -v, --version display version information and exit
7571 \ read arguments from following script lines
7573 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
7574 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
7576 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7579 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
7583 (main (command-line))
7585 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
7587 ekko a speckled gecko
7589 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
7590 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
7591 following list of command-line arguments:
7593 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
7595 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
7596 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
7597 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
7598 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
7599 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
7601 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
7603 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
7605 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
7606 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
7609 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
7610 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
7611 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
7612 SCSH) for circumventing them.
7614 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
7615 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
7616 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
7617 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
7619 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
7623 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
7627 If the user invokes this script as follows:
7629 ekko a speckled gecko
7631 Unix expands this into
7633 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
7635 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
7636 read from the second line of the script, producing:
7638 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
7640 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
7641 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
7643 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
7644 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
7645 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
7646 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
7647 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
7648 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
7649 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
7650 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
7651 it only terminates the argument list.)
7652 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
7653 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
7654 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
7655 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
7656 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
7657 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
7658 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
7659 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
7661 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7663 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
7664 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
7665 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
7666 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
7667 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
7669 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
7670 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
7671 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
7673 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
7675 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
7676 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
7677 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
7678 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
7681 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
7682 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7683 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7685 * Changes to Scheme functions
7687 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
7688 and disabled by default.
7690 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
7691 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
7692 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
7693 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
7695 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
7697 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
7699 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
7700 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
7702 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
7703 (read-set! keywords #f)
7705 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
7706 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
7707 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
7710 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
7711 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
7712 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
7715 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
7716 support for Scheme functions.
7718 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
7719 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
7720 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
7721 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
7724 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
7725 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
7726 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
7729 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
7730 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
7731 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
7734 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
7735 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
7736 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
7737 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
7738 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
7739 display the result as a prompt.
7740 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
7742 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
7743 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
7744 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
7747 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
7748 procedure of zero arguments.
7750 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
7751 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
7752 argument is bound in the current module.
7754 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
7755 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
7756 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
7757 public bindings into the current module.
7759 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
7760 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
7762 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
7763 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
7765 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
7766 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
7768 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
7769 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
7771 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
7772 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
7774 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
7775 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
7776 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
7777 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
7778 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
7780 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
7781 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
7782 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
7783 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
7785 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
7788 ** Changes to I/O functions
7790 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
7791 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
7792 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
7794 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
7795 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
7796 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
7798 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
7799 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
7801 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
7802 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
7803 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
7804 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
7806 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
7808 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
7809 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
7811 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
7812 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
7813 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
7814 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
7815 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
7818 'trim omit delimiter from result
7819 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
7820 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
7821 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
7823 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
7825 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
7826 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
7828 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
7829 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
7830 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
7831 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
7832 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
7834 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
7835 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
7836 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
7838 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
7839 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
7840 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
7841 above, and defaults to 'peek.
7843 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
7844 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
7846 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
7847 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
7849 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
7851 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
7852 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
7853 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
7854 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
7855 a delimiting character.
7856 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
7858 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
7859 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
7860 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
7861 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
7862 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
7863 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
7865 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
7866 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
7868 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
7869 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
7870 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
7872 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
7873 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
7874 the array to read and write.
7876 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
7877 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
7880 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
7882 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
7885 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
7886 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
7887 Values for COMMAND are:
7889 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
7890 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
7891 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
7892 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
7893 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
7894 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
7895 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
7896 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
7898 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
7900 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
7901 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
7902 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
7903 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
7904 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
7905 corresponding return set will be the same.
7907 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
7910 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
7911 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
7912 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
7913 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
7914 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
7915 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
7916 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
7917 special file being created.
7919 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
7920 clashing with various SCSH forks.
7922 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
7923 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
7924 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
7925 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
7926 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
7927 and originating address.
7929 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
7930 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
7931 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
7933 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
7936 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
7937 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
7940 (status:exit-val STATUS)
7941 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
7942 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
7943 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
7944 this function returns #f.
7946 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
7947 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
7948 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
7951 (status:term-sig STATUS)
7952 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
7953 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
7956 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
7957 a valid STATUS value.
7959 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
7961 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
7962 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
7964 Component Accessor Setter
7965 ========================= ============ ============
7966 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
7967 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
7968 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
7969 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
7970 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
7971 year tm:year set-tm:year
7972 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
7973 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
7974 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
7975 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
7976 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
7978 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
7979 describing the host system:
7982 ============================================== ================
7983 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
7984 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
7985 release level of the operating system utsname:release
7986 version level of the operating system utsname:version
7987 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
7989 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
7990 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
7991 system's user database:
7994 ====================== =================
7995 user name passwd:name
7996 user password passwd:passwd
7999 real name passwd:gecos
8000 home directory passwd:dir
8001 shell program passwd:shell
8003 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
8004 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
8005 system's group database:
8008 ======================= ============
8009 group name group:name
8010 group password group:passwd
8012 group members group:mem
8014 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
8015 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
8019 ========================= ===============
8020 official name of host hostent:name
8021 alias list hostent:aliases
8022 host address type hostent:addrtype
8023 length of address hostent:length
8024 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
8026 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
8027 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
8031 ========================= ===============
8032 official name of net netent:name
8033 alias list netent:aliases
8034 net number type netent:addrtype
8035 net number netent:net
8037 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
8038 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
8042 ========================= ===============
8043 official protocol name protoent:name
8044 alias list protoent:aliases
8045 protocol number protoent:proto
8047 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
8048 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
8052 ========================= ===============
8053 official service name servent:name
8054 alias list servent:aliases
8055 port number servent:port
8056 protocol to use servent:proto
8058 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
8059 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
8062 ======================================== ===============
8063 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
8064 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
8065 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
8066 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
8068 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
8069 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
8070 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
8072 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
8073 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
8075 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
8076 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
8078 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
8079 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
8081 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
8083 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
8085 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
8086 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
8087 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
8089 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
8090 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
8091 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
8092 return the remaining characters as a string.
8094 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
8095 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
8096 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
8098 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
8100 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8102 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
8105 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
8108 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
8109 and returns the array
8111 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
8112 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
8113 the user to interpret the data both ways.
8115 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8117 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
8118 symbol's value from C code:
8120 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
8121 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
8122 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
8123 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
8125 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
8126 without assigning them a value.
8128 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
8129 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
8130 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
8132 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
8133 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
8134 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
8136 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
8137 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
8139 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
8140 doesn't actually care about that.
8142 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
8143 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
8144 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
8146 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
8147 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
8148 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
8149 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
8150 which we have just created and initialized.
8152 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
8153 should one occur. We call it like this:
8154 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
8156 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
8157 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
8158 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
8159 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
8160 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
8161 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
8164 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
8165 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
8166 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
8167 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
8168 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
8169 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
8170 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
8173 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
8174 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
8175 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
8176 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
8177 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
8180 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
8181 scm_internal_catch, except:
8183 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
8184 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
8185 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
8186 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
8189 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
8190 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
8191 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
8193 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
8194 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
8195 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
8196 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
8199 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
8200 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
8201 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
8203 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
8204 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
8205 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
8206 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
8207 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
8209 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
8210 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
8211 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
8213 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
8214 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
8215 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
8217 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
8218 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
8220 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
8221 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
8222 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
8225 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
8226 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
8227 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
8228 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
8229 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
8230 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
8231 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
8234 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
8235 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
8237 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
8238 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
8239 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
8240 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
8241 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
8244 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
8245 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
8247 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
8248 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
8251 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
8252 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
8254 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8257 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
8258 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
8259 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
8260 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
8261 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
8262 given the following arguments:
8264 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8266 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
8268 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
8270 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8273 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
8274 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
8275 command-line arguments.
8277 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
8278 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
8279 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
8280 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
8281 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
8282 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
8285 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8288 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
8289 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
8291 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
8292 rearranged slightly. They are now:
8294 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8295 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8296 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
8297 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
8299 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8300 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8302 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8303 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
8304 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8305 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
8307 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8308 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8310 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
8311 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
8313 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
8315 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
8316 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
8317 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
8320 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
8321 returns a port instead of an FD object.
8323 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
8324 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
8329 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
8332 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
8334 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
8335 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
8336 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
8337 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
8339 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
8341 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
8343 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
8344 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
8345 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
8346 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
8347 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
8348 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
8349 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
8350 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
8351 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
8352 for more information.
8354 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
8355 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
8357 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
8358 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
8359 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
8360 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
8361 following two lines at the top of the file:
8363 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8366 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
8367 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
8368 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
8370 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
8372 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8374 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
8377 (display (car args))
8378 (if (pair? (cdr args))
8380 (loop (cdr args)))))
8383 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
8384 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
8385 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
8386 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
8387 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
8388 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
8392 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
8395 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
8398 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
8400 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
8401 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
8402 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
8403 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
8404 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
8407 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
8408 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
8409 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
8410 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
8411 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
8414 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
8417 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
8418 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
8419 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
8422 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
8423 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
8424 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
8426 to see a backtrace, and
8427 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
8428 to see them by default.
8432 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
8434 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
8436 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
8437 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
8440 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
8441 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
8442 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
8443 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
8446 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
8447 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
8448 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
8449 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
8450 functions which inspired them.
8452 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
8453 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
8457 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
8459 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
8461 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
8462 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
8465 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
8466 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
8467 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
8469 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
8470 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
8471 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
8472 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
8473 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
8475 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
8477 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
8478 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
8479 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
8482 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
8485 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
8487 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
8488 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
8489 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
8490 above should serve their purposes.
8492 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
8493 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
8494 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
8495 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
8497 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
8500 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
8501 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
8502 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
8503 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
8505 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
8506 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
8507 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
8508 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
8510 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
8511 for the `read' function.
8514 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
8515 to that of `integer?'.
8517 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
8518 use the R4RS names for these functions.
8520 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
8521 it simply returns the object's property list.
8523 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
8524 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
8525 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
8526 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
8528 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
8530 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
8533 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
8535 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
8536 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
8538 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
8540 void (*main_func) (),
8543 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
8544 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
8545 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
8546 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
8547 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
8549 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
8550 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
8551 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
8552 know which arguments have been processed.
8554 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
8555 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
8556 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
8557 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
8558 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
8560 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
8561 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
8562 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
8563 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
8564 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
8565 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
8566 people from making that mistake.
8568 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
8569 convenient ways to override these when desired.
8571 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
8573 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
8577 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
8580 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
8581 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
8582 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
8583 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
8586 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
8587 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
8588 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
8589 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
8592 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
8593 have been added to the Guile library.
8595 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
8596 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
8597 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
8600 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
8601 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
8602 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
8604 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
8605 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
8606 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
8607 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
8608 argument from the list.
8611 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
8614 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
8615 null-terminated string, and returns it.
8617 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
8618 to a Scheme port object.
8620 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
8621 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
8626 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
8628 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
8629 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
8630 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
8631 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
8632 code as a special datatype.
8634 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
8635 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
8636 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
8637 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
8638 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
8641 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
8642 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
8643 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
8644 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
8645 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
8647 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
8650 Copyright information:
8652 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8654 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8655 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8656 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8657 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8659 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8660 of this document, or of portions of it,
8661 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8662 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8667 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"