1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
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12 * New modules (see the manual for details)
14 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', multithreading support
15 ** The `(ice-9 i18n)' module provides internationalization support
17 * Changes to the distribution
19 ** Guile now uses Gnulib as a portability aid
21 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
22 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
24 ** A new 'memoize-symbol evaluator trap has been added. This trap can
25 be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code coverage.
27 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
28 This slightly improves program startup times.
30 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
31 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
33 * Changes to the C interface
35 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
37 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
40 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
41 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
45 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
47 * New features (see the manual for details)
49 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
51 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
53 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
54 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
55 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
57 * Changes to the distribution
59 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
61 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
62 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
66 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
67 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
68 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
69 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
70 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
71 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
72 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
73 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
76 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
78 * Infrastructure changes
80 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
82 The new repository can be accessed using
83 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
84 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
86 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
88 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
90 * New modules (see the manual for details)
94 * New features (see the manual for details)
96 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
97 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
98 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
100 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
101 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
102 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
103 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
105 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
107 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
108 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
109 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
113 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
114 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
116 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
117 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
119 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
120 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
122 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
123 lead to a stack overflow.
125 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
126 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
127 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
128 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
129 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
130 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
131 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
132 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
133 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
134 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
135 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
136 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
137 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
138 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
139 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
140 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
142 * Changes to the distribution
146 We've started collecting Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), and will
147 distribute these (with answers!) in future Guile releases.
150 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
154 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
155 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
156 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
157 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
158 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
159 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
160 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
161 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
162 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
163 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
164 system and library calls.
165 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
166 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
167 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
168 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
169 uniform vectors on AIX.
170 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
171 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
172 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
173 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
174 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
176 * New modules (see the manual for details)
180 * Documentation fixes and improvements
182 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
184 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
185 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
187 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
189 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
191 * Changes to the distribution
193 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
195 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
196 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
197 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
199 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
201 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
204 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
206 * New modules (see the manual for details)
213 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
214 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
215 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
216 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
217 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
218 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
219 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
221 * Implementation improvements
223 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
224 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
228 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
230 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
232 ** set-program-arguments
237 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
238 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
239 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
240 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
241 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
242 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
244 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
245 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
246 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
247 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
248 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
249 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
250 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
251 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
252 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
253 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
254 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
255 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
256 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
257 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
258 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
259 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
262 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
264 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
266 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
268 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
269 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
270 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
271 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
272 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
273 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
279 * New `(ice-9 i18n)' module (see the manual for details)
283 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
285 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
287 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
289 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
291 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
293 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
295 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
296 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
297 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
299 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
301 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
303 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
304 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
306 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
308 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
309 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
311 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
313 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
315 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
317 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
319 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
321 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
323 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
325 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
327 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
329 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
330 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
331 file was on a different device.
334 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
336 * Changes to the distribution
338 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
340 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
342 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
344 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
346 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
348 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
351 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
353 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
354 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
355 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
356 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
357 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
358 items like the versioned share directory name
359 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
361 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
362 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
363 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
364 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
365 with each micro release during a stable series.
367 ** Thread implementation has changed.
369 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
370 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
371 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
372 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
373 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
376 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
377 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
378 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
379 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
382 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
383 in which case "null" threads are used.
385 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
386 "Blocking", and others.
388 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
390 This is a milder form of deprecation.
392 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
393 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
394 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
395 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
396 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
398 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
399 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
401 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
403 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
404 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
406 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
409 This SRFI is always available.
411 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
413 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
414 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
415 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
416 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
419 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
421 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
422 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
423 parameters without currying.
425 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
427 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
428 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
430 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
431 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
434 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
435 with a renaming import, for example.
437 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
439 The official version is good enough now.
441 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
443 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
444 provided. Use 'make html'.
446 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
448 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
449 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
450 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
451 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
453 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
455 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
458 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
460 ** New command line option `-L'.
462 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
464 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
466 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
467 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
469 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
471 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
472 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
474 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
476 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
477 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
480 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
483 (define-module (demo)
487 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
490 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
492 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
494 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
495 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
496 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
498 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
500 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
501 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
503 ** New function hashx-remove!
505 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
507 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
508 barriers and dynamic states.
510 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
511 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
512 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
515 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
516 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
517 Barriers" in the manual.
519 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
520 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
522 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
524 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
525 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
526 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
529 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
531 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
532 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
534 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
535 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
536 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
538 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
539 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
541 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
542 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
543 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
545 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
546 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
547 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
550 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
551 substrings and read-only strings.
553 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
554 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
557 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
559 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
568 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
569 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
570 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
572 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
573 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
574 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
577 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
578 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
581 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
583 See the manual for details.
585 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
587 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
590 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
592 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
593 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
594 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
595 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
597 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
598 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
599 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
602 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
604 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
605 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
616 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
620 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
625 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
629 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
633 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
636 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
637 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
638 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
639 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
641 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
642 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
645 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
648 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
652 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
654 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
655 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
656 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
659 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
662 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
664 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
667 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
668 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
676 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
677 has been detected is to
679 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
680 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
681 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
684 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
687 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
689 to your .guile init file.
691 ** New define-module option: :replace
693 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
696 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
697 for the core binding `format'.
699 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
701 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
702 a prefix to all imported bindings.
705 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
707 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
710 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
712 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
713 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
714 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
716 ** New function: effective-version
718 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
719 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
720 to the distribution" above.
722 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
724 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
725 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
727 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
729 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
730 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
732 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
734 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
735 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
738 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
740 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
742 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
744 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
745 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
746 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
749 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
750 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
751 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
754 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
755 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
757 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
758 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
759 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
762 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
764 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
765 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
768 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
769 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
771 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
772 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
773 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
774 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
775 level for the current thread.
777 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
779 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
781 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
782 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
785 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
787 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
789 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
792 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
794 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
797 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
798 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
799 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
801 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
802 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
803 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
804 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
815 ERROR: Numerical overflow
817 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
820 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
822 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
823 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
824 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
835 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
837 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
838 them is also done exactly, of course:
843 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
846 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
847 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
849 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
851 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
852 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
853 equal to a floating point number. For example:
855 (inexact->exact 1.234)
856 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
858 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
860 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
863 ** New function 'rationalize'.
865 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
866 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
868 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
871 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
872 result when both its arguments are exact.
874 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
876 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
877 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
878 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
880 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
882 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
883 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
884 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
886 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
889 ** pretty-print has more options.
891 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
892 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
893 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
895 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
897 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
898 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
899 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
901 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
903 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
904 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
906 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
908 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
909 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
912 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
914 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
915 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
916 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
917 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
918 without the soft port blocking.
920 ** Deprecated: undefine
922 There is no replacement for undefine.
924 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
925 have been discouraged.
927 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
928 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
929 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
932 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
934 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
936 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
937 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
938 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
939 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
942 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
943 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
944 be removed in the next major Guile release.
946 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
948 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
949 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
950 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
951 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
952 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
953 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
955 * Changes to the C interface
957 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
958 take a 'delete' function argument.
960 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
961 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
963 This is an incompatible change.
965 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
967 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
968 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
969 --disable-deprecated.
971 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
973 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
974 Scheme values has been added.
976 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
977 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
982 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
983 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
985 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
987 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
988 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
991 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
993 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
994 scm_from_int for ints.
996 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
997 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
998 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
1000 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
1002 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
1003 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
1004 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
1007 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
1009 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
1011 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
1013 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
1014 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
1015 following alternatives.
1017 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
1018 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
1019 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
1020 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
1022 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
1023 do the validating for you.
1025 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
1026 have been discouraged.
1028 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
1029 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
1032 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
1034 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
1035 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
1038 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
1040 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
1043 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
1046 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
1048 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
1049 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
1051 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
1052 scm_truncate_number should have.
1054 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
1055 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
1057 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
1060 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
1061 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
1062 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
1064 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
1065 easier to use from C.
1067 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
1068 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
1070 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
1071 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
1072 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
1075 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
1076 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
1077 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
1078 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
1081 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
1082 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
1083 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
1084 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
1085 and is thus quite efficient.
1087 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
1089 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
1090 about the character encoding.
1092 Replace according to the following table:
1094 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
1095 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
1096 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
1097 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
1098 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
1099 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
1100 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
1101 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
1102 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
1104 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
1105 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
1107 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
1109 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
1110 now also available to C code.
1112 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
1114 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
1115 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
1116 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
1118 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
1121 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
1123 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
1124 unceremoniously removed.
1126 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
1127 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
1128 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
1130 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
1131 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
1132 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1133 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1134 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
1135 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
1138 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
1140 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
1141 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
1142 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
1143 manual for more details.
1145 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
1146 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1148 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
1149 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
1150 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
1152 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
1154 Migrate according to the following table:
1156 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
1157 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
1158 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
1159 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
1160 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
1161 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
1162 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
1164 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
1165 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
1166 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
1167 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
1168 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
1169 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
1170 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
1172 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
1174 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
1175 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
1177 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
1178 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
1179 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
1180 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
1182 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
1184 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
1185 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
1186 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
1188 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
1189 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
1191 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
1192 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
1193 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
1194 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
1196 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
1198 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
1199 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
1200 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
1201 prevent a potential memory leak:
1208 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
1210 mem = scm_malloc (100);
1211 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
1213 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
1214 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
1221 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
1222 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
1226 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
1228 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
1230 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
1231 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
1232 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
1234 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1235 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
1237 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
1239 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
1241 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
1242 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
1243 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
1245 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
1246 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
1248 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
1249 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
1250 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
1251 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
1254 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
1256 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
1257 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
1258 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
1260 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
1262 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
1263 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
1265 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
1267 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
1268 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
1270 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
1272 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
1273 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
1274 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
1276 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
1278 You should not have used them.
1280 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
1282 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
1283 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
1285 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
1287 This macro is not intended for public use.
1289 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
1291 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
1293 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
1295 Use scm_is_real instead.
1297 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
1299 Use scm_is_complex instead.
1301 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
1303 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
1304 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
1306 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
1307 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
1309 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
1310 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
1312 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
1314 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
1317 ** New function: scm_effective_version
1319 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
1320 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
1321 to the distribution" above.
1323 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
1325 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
1326 arguments are now passed directly:
1328 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
1330 This is an incompatible change.
1332 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
1334 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
1335 function in the init section.
1337 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
1339 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
1341 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
1342 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
1343 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
1344 stays roughly constant.
1346 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
1347 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
1348 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
1349 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
1350 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
1353 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
1354 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
1355 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
1356 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
1358 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
1359 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
1360 objects for every type.
1363 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
1365 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1367 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1369 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1370 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1371 initializes a new cell (see below).
1373 ** New functions for memory management
1375 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1376 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1377 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1378 cause aborts in long running programs.
1380 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1381 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1383 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1384 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1385 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1386 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1387 details and for upgrading instructions.
1389 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1390 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1391 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1393 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1395 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1396 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1397 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1398 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1399 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1401 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1402 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1403 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1405 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1406 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1408 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1410 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1411 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1412 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1413 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1414 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1416 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1418 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1421 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1423 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1425 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1427 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1428 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1430 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1432 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1433 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1435 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
1436 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
1438 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
1440 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
1442 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
1443 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
1444 blocking it is not well defined.
1446 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1448 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1449 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1450 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1451 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1452 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1453 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1454 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1455 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1456 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1457 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1458 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1459 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1460 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1461 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1462 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1463 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1464 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1465 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1466 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1467 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1468 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1469 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1470 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1471 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1472 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1473 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1474 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1475 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1476 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1477 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1478 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1480 * Changes to bundled modules
1484 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
1485 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
1486 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
1487 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
1488 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
1491 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1493 * Changes to the distribution
1495 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1497 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1499 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1500 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1501 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1502 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1503 indicate major changes in Guile.
1505 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1506 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1507 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1508 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1510 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1511 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1512 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1513 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1514 micro version number.
1516 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1518 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1520 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1521 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1523 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1525 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1526 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1527 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1529 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1531 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1532 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1533 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1536 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1538 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1541 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1543 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1544 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1546 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1548 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1549 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1552 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1554 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1557 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1560 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1562 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1564 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1565 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1566 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1568 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1570 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1572 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1575 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1577 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1579 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1581 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1582 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1583 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1585 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1587 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1589 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1590 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1599 See README there for more info.
1601 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1602 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1605 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1607 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1609 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1611 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1612 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1613 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1615 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1617 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1618 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1619 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1621 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1622 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1624 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1627 (oop goops describe)
1629 (oop goops active-slot)
1630 (oop goops composite-slot)
1632 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1633 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1634 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1636 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1638 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1639 in the default environment:
1641 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1642 %read-line write-line
1644 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1645 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1647 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1649 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1652 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1653 can be used for similar functionality.
1655 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1657 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1658 it defines two procedures:
1660 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1662 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1663 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1664 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1667 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1669 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1670 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1671 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1672 write large strings.
1674 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1676 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1677 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1679 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1681 for complete documentation.
1683 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1685 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1686 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1687 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1688 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1690 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1691 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1695 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1696 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1697 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1700 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1703 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1704 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1706 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1707 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1710 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1713 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1715 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1717 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1719 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1721 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1722 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1723 Scheme programs easier.
1725 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1726 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1727 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1728 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1729 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1732 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1733 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1735 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1738 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1740 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1741 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1742 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1745 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1747 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1749 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1750 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1751 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1752 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1753 was also ASCII, for example.
1755 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1757 tag - no replacement.
1758 fseek - replaced by seek.
1759 list* - replaced by cons*.
1761 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1765 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1766 (define m (make-safe-module))
1767 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1768 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1769 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1771 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1773 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1774 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1775 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1777 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1779 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1780 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1781 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1782 from the issues related to the module system.
1784 *** New function: load-extension
1786 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1788 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1790 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1791 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1792 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1794 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1796 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1797 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1798 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1799 support dynamic linking).
1801 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1803 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1804 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1805 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1806 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1809 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1810 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1811 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1812 library and initialize it explicitly.
1814 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1815 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1817 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1819 (define-module (foo bar))
1821 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1823 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1825 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1826 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1828 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1829 (null-environment 5)
1830 (interaction-environment)
1836 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1838 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1839 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1840 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1841 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1843 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1844 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1845 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1846 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1847 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1848 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1849 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1850 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1851 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1852 one eval to the next.
1854 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1855 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1856 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1857 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1858 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1860 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1861 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1862 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1863 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1864 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1865 used in a lexical environment.
1867 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1868 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1869 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1870 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1871 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1872 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1874 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1876 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1877 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1878 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1879 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1880 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1882 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1883 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1884 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1886 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1887 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1889 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1890 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1891 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1893 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1894 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1896 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1897 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1898 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1899 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1902 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1903 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1904 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1905 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1907 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1908 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1909 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1911 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1912 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1913 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1914 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1915 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1917 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1919 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1920 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1921 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1923 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1924 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1925 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1927 See manual for more info.
1929 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1931 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1932 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1933 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1935 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1937 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1938 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1939 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1941 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1942 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1943 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1944 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1946 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1948 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1949 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1951 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1952 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1953 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1954 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1955 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1958 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1959 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1960 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1961 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1962 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1963 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1965 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1966 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1967 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1968 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1969 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1971 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1972 objects are usually permanent.
1974 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1975 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1977 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1979 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1980 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1983 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1987 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1992 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1994 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1995 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1996 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1997 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1999 ** New function `make-object-property'
2001 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
2002 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
2006 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
2007 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
2011 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
2012 source properties eventually.
2014 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
2016 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
2017 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
2018 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
2020 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
2021 will be removed in the next release.
2023 ** New define-module option: pure
2025 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
2030 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
2033 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
2035 Export names NAME1 ...
2037 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
2038 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
2042 (define-module (foo)
2044 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
2047 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
2052 ** New function: object->string OBJ
2054 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
2056 ** New function: port? X
2058 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
2059 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
2061 ** New function: file-port?
2063 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
2065 ** New function: port-for-each proc
2067 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
2068 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
2069 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
2070 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
2071 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
2073 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
2075 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
2076 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
2077 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
2078 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
2079 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
2082 ** New function: close-fdes fd
2084 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
2085 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
2086 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
2087 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
2090 ** New function: crypt password salt
2092 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
2095 ** New function: chroot path
2097 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
2099 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
2101 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
2104 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
2106 Get or set the priority of the running process.
2108 ** New function: getpass prompt
2110 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
2113 ** New function: flock file operation
2115 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
2117 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
2119 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
2122 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
2124 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
2125 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
2126 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
2127 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
2128 of the temporary file.
2130 ** New function: open-input-string string
2132 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
2133 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
2134 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
2136 ** New function: open-output-string
2138 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
2139 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
2141 ** New function: get-output-string
2143 Return the contents of an output string port.
2145 ** New function: identity
2147 Return the argument.
2149 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
2150 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
2152 ** New function: inet-pton family address
2154 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
2155 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
2156 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2159 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
2160 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
2162 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
2164 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
2165 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
2166 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
2169 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
2170 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
2171 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
2175 Use `identity' instead.
2181 ** Deprecated: return-it
2185 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
2187 Use `string-length' instead.
2189 ** Deprecated: flags
2191 Use `logior' instead.
2193 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
2195 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
2196 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
2197 port-for-each is more flexible.
2199 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
2200 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
2201 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
2203 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
2205 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
2207 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
2209 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
2211 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
2213 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
2214 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
2216 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
2217 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
2219 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
2220 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
2222 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
2224 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
2225 Removed function: builtin-bindings
2227 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
2228 Use module system operations for all variables.
2230 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
2232 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
2235 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
2237 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
2238 The following bugs have been fixed:
2240 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
2241 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
2244 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
2245 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
2246 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
2248 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
2249 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
2251 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
2252 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
2255 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
2256 The expansion used to be like so:
2258 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
2260 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
2262 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
2264 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
2265 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
2267 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
2269 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
2270 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
2271 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
2275 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
2276 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
2278 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
2283 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
2284 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
2286 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
2287 and `d', other keywords allowed.
2288 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
2290 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
2293 * Changes to the C interface
2295 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
2297 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
2298 with "_t". What a concept.
2300 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
2302 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
2304 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
2308 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
2309 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
2311 *** C Functions removed
2313 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
2314 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
2315 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
2316 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
2317 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
2318 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
2319 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
2321 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
2323 Use scm_mem2string instead.
2325 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
2327 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
2329 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
2330 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
2332 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
2334 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
2337 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
2339 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
2341 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
2343 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
2344 Evaluation" in the manual.
2346 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
2348 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
2349 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
2351 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
2353 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
2354 Constructors" in the manual.
2356 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
2358 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
2359 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
2361 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
2363 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
2365 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
2366 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
2367 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
2369 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2371 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
2373 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
2374 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
2375 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
2378 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
2380 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
2382 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
2383 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
2385 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
2387 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2388 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2389 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2390 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2392 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2393 scm_primitive_property_ref
2394 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2395 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2397 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2398 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2400 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2402 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2403 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2404 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2405 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2407 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2409 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2410 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2411 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2412 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2413 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2414 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2415 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2417 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2418 scm_remember_upto_here
2420 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2422 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2424 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2425 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2427 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2429 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2431 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2433 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2435 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2437 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2438 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2439 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2440 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2441 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2442 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2444 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2446 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2448 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2449 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2450 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2452 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2454 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2455 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2456 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2458 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2460 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2461 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2464 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2467 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2468 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2471 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2473 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2475 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2477 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2479 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2481 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2483 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2484 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2485 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2486 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2487 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2488 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2489 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2490 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2491 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2492 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2493 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2494 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2495 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2496 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2497 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2499 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2500 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2501 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2502 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2503 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2504 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2505 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2506 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2507 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2508 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2509 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2510 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2511 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2512 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2513 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2514 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2515 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2516 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2517 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2518 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2519 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2520 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2521 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2522 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2523 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2524 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2525 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2526 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2527 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2529 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2531 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2533 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2534 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2536 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2538 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2540 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2542 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2544 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2546 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2548 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2550 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2552 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2555 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2556 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2558 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2560 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2562 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2564 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2566 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2568 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2570 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2572 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2575 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2577 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2579 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2581 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2582 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2584 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2585 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2587 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2589 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2590 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2591 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2593 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2595 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2597 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2598 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2600 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2601 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2602 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2603 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2605 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2606 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2607 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2609 Use the new ones from above instead.
2611 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2613 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2614 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2615 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2617 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2618 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2620 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2621 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2624 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2625 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2627 Use the new functions instead.
2629 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2632 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2634 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2636 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2639 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2641 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2644 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2646 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2649 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2650 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2651 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2653 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2655 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2656 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2658 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2659 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2660 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2661 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2664 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2666 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2667 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2668 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2669 inexact for an exact.
2671 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2672 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2673 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2676 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2677 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2678 accept an inexact argument.
2680 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2681 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2683 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2686 ** New number validation macros:
2687 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2691 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2693 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2694 scm_unprotect_object.
2696 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2698 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2700 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2703 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2705 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2709 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2711 * Changes to the distribution
2713 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2715 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2716 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2717 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2718 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2719 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2720 obtain these programs.
2721 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2722 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2724 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2725 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2726 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2727 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2728 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2730 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2731 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2732 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2733 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2737 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2740 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2741 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2742 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2743 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2745 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2747 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2749 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2750 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2752 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2753 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2755 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2756 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2758 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2759 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2760 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2761 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2763 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2765 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2769 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2770 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2772 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2774 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2775 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2777 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2778 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2779 number of objects of that kind.
2781 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2783 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2784 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2785 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2786 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2787 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2789 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2791 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2793 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2795 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2798 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2800 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2802 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2804 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2806 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2808 ** New command line option --debug
2810 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2812 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2814 ** New help facility
2816 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2817 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2818 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2819 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2820 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2821 (help) gives this text
2823 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2824 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2826 Examples: (help help)
2828 (help "output-string")
2830 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2832 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2834 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2835 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2838 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2839 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2840 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2843 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2844 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2845 use absolute filenames when possible.
2847 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2848 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2849 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2852 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2854 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2855 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2856 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2857 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2859 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2861 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2863 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2864 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2865 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2867 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2868 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2869 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2871 (read-enable 'positions)
2872 (debug-enable 'debug)
2874 ** Backtraces in scripts
2876 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2880 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2882 at the top of the script.
2884 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2885 The second enables backtraces.)
2887 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2889 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2890 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2891 substantially faster than before.
2893 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2894 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2896 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2897 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2899 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2901 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2902 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2903 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2905 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2906 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2907 when this hook is run in the future.
2909 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2910 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2912 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2914 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2915 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2918 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2919 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2920 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2922 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2923 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2925 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2926 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2928 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2929 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2930 in order not to need further allocation.)
2932 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2935 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2936 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2937 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2938 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2940 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2942 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2945 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2947 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2950 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2951 GC in percent of total heap size
2954 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2955 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2957 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2959 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2960 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2962 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2964 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2965 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2967 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2969 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2970 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2974 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2975 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2977 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2979 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2981 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2983 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2985 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2987 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2988 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2990 (simple-format port message . args)
2991 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2992 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2993 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2994 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2995 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2996 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2997 Does not add a trailing newline."
2999 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
3001 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
3002 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
3004 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
3005 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
3007 ** Deprecated: list*
3009 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
3011 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
3013 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
3014 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
3016 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
3017 is returned as result.
3019 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
3021 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
3023 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
3025 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
3026 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
3029 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
3031 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
3033 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
3034 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
3036 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3038 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
3040 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
3042 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3044 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
3046 Thanks to Greg Badros!
3048 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3050 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
3051 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
3052 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
3054 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
3057 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
3059 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
3060 the readability of argument checking.
3062 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
3064 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
3066 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
3068 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
3069 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
3070 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
3071 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
3072 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
3073 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
3074 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
3076 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
3078 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
3080 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
3081 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
3083 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
3085 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
3086 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
3089 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
3091 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
3092 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
3093 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
3095 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
3096 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
3097 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
3099 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
3100 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
3101 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
3102 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
3103 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
3104 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
3105 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
3107 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
3108 scm_end_input (object);
3109 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
3110 ptob->flush (object);
3112 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
3113 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
3116 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
3118 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
3120 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
3121 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
3122 removed in a future version.
3124 ** The format of error message strings has changed
3126 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
3127 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
3128 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
3129 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
3131 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
3132 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
3134 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
3137 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
3139 in your configure.in.
3141 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
3146 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
3152 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
3154 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
3158 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
3159 (define make-message string-append)
3161 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
3163 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
3167 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
3172 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
3176 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
3178 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
3179 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
3181 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
3183 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
3184 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
3185 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
3186 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
3187 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
3188 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
3190 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
3191 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
3192 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
3194 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
3195 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
3196 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
3199 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
3200 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
3201 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
3202 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
3203 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
3205 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
3206 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
3207 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
3208 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
3209 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
3210 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
3211 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
3213 Destructors are not yet implemented.
3215 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
3216 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
3217 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
3219 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
3220 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
3221 KEY in the calling thread.
3223 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
3224 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
3225 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
3226 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
3227 associated with the key.
3229 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
3231 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
3232 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
3234 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
3236 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
3237 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
3238 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
3240 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
3242 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
3243 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
3245 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
3247 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
3249 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
3250 returned is undefined.
3252 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
3253 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
3254 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
3256 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
3257 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
3258 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
3260 ** New C level GC hooks
3262 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
3264 scm_before_gc_c_hook
3267 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
3268 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
3269 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
3271 scm_before_mark_c_hook
3272 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
3273 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
3275 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
3276 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
3279 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
3281 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
3282 allocation parameters
3284 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
3285 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
3286 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
3290 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
3291 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
3292 scm_default_max_segment_size
3294 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
3296 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
3297 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
3299 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
3301 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
3302 object and count on the object being protected until
3303 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
3305 The functions also have better time complexity.
3307 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
3308 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
3309 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
3310 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
3311 are no longer needed.
3313 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
3315 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
3316 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
3317 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
3318 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
3320 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
3322 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
3324 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
3326 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
3327 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
3328 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
3329 until this issue has been settled.
3331 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
3333 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
3335 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
3338 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
3340 * Changes to system call interfaces:
3342 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
3343 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
3344 descriptors were checked.
3346 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
3347 atomically written to a pipe.
3349 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
3350 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
3351 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
3352 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
3353 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
3354 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
3355 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
3358 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
3359 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
3360 is changed without calling tzset.
3362 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
3364 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
3365 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
3366 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
3368 (define write-network-long
3369 (lambda (value port)
3370 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3371 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
3372 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
3374 (define read-network-long
3376 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
3377 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
3378 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
3380 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
3381 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
3383 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
3384 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
3385 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
3386 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3388 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3389 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3390 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3391 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3395 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3397 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3401 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3402 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3403 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3409 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3410 for a description of available commands.
3412 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3413 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3414 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3416 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3418 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3419 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3421 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3423 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3425 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3426 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3427 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3428 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3429 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3430 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3433 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3435 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3436 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3437 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3438 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3440 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3441 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3443 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3445 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3447 ** Readline support has changed again.
3449 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3450 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3451 to activate readline is now
3453 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3456 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3458 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3459 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3460 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3463 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3464 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3465 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3468 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3469 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3470 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3471 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3472 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3473 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3475 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3476 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3478 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3480 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3481 object it receives is the same string passed to
3482 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3483 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3484 string, not the suffix.
3486 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3487 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3488 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3490 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3492 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3493 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3494 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3495 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3498 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3500 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3502 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3503 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3504 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3505 appear from left to right.
3507 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3510 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3512 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3513 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3515 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3519 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3521 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3523 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3525 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3526 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3527 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3529 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3531 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3533 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3535 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3538 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3540 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3541 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3542 mentioning it here anyway.
3544 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3546 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3547 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3548 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3549 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3552 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3554 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3556 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3558 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3559 otherwise return #f.
3561 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3563 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3564 returned by `opendir'.
3566 ** New function: using-readline?
3568 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3570 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3572 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3573 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3575 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3577 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3579 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3580 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3581 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3583 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3585 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3586 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3588 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3590 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3591 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3592 documentation slots are not yet used.
3594 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3596 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3597 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3598 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3603 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3604 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3605 (string-append x y))
3607 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3608 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3610 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3611 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3612 be made in a clean way.]
3614 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3616 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3618 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3620 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3621 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3623 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3625 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3627 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3629 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3631 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3632 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3633 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3634 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3637 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3639 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3641 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3643 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3645 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3646 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3648 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3650 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3652 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3654 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3656 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3657 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3658 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3659 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3660 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3661 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3663 This should not make any difference for most users.
3665 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3667 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3668 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3670 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3672 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3673 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3674 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3675 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3676 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3678 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3680 It is now replaced by:
3682 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3684 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3685 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3687 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3689 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3690 This might change when we get the new module system.
3692 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3696 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3698 * Changes to mailing lists
3700 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3702 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3705 * Changes to the distribution
3707 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3709 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3710 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3711 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3712 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3713 you explicitly specify it.
3715 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3716 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3717 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3718 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3719 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3722 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3723 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3724 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3725 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3727 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3728 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3729 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3732 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3734 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3737 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3739 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3741 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3742 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3743 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3744 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3746 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3747 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3750 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3752 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3753 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3754 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3755 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3756 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3757 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3758 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3759 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3771 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3772 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3773 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3774 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3775 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3780 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3781 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3789 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3794 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3795 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3798 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3799 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3800 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3801 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3803 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3805 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3807 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3808 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3810 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3812 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3814 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3815 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3817 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3820 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3822 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3824 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3826 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3828 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3830 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3832 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3833 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3834 when the hook was created.
3836 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3837 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3838 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3839 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3840 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3841 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3842 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3843 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3844 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3846 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3847 the dlopen family of functions.
3849 ** New function `provided?'
3851 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3852 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3853 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3854 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3856 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3858 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3859 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3860 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3861 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3864 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3865 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3866 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3867 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3869 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3870 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3871 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3874 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3875 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3876 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3877 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3878 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3879 but with the flag set.
3881 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3883 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3884 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3886 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3887 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3888 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3889 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3890 available Scheme format implementations.
3892 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3893 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3894 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3895 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3896 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3897 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3898 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3899 output is to the current error port if available by the
3900 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3903 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3904 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3905 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3906 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3907 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3908 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3909 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3910 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3912 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3913 be executed at a time.
3916 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3918 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3919 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3920 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3922 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3923 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3924 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3925 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3926 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3927 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3928 general form of a directive is:
3930 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3932 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3934 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3936 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3937 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3938 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3941 Any (print as `display' does).
3945 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3949 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3953 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3959 print number sign always.
3962 print comma separated.
3964 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3970 print number sign always.
3973 print comma separated.
3975 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3981 print number sign always.
3984 print comma separated.
3986 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3992 print number sign always.
3995 print comma separated.
3997 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
4002 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
4006 print a number as a Roman numeral.
4009 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
4012 print a number as an ordinal English number.
4015 print a number as a cardinal English number.
4020 prints `y' and `ies'.
4023 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4026 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
4031 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
4035 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
4038 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
4039 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
4041 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4044 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
4045 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
4047 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4050 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
4052 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
4054 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4057 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
4059 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
4061 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
4064 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
4067 The sign appears before the padding.
4075 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
4077 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
4082 print N page separators.
4092 newline is ignored, white space left.
4095 newline is left, white space ignored.
4100 relative tabulation.
4106 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
4108 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
4111 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
4113 converts by `string-capitalize'.
4116 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
4119 converts by `string-upcase'.
4122 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
4124 jumps N arguments forward.
4127 jumps 1 argument backward.
4130 jumps N arguments backward.
4133 jumps to the 0th argument.
4136 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
4138 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
4139 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
4141 take argument from N.
4144 true test conditional.
4147 if-else-then conditional.
4153 default clause follows.
4156 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
4158 at most N iterations.
4161 args from next arg (a list of lists).
4164 args from the rest of arguments.
4167 args from the rest args (lists).
4178 aborts if N <= M <= K
4180 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
4183 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4186 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
4192 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
4194 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
4196 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
4197 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
4198 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
4199 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
4200 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
4201 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
4205 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
4209 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
4215 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
4218 Print a `#\space' character
4220 print N `#\space' characters.
4223 Print a `#\tab' character
4225 print N `#\tab' characters.
4228 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
4229 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
4230 must be a positive decimal number.
4233 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4234 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4235 be processed by `read'.
4238 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
4239 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
4240 be processed by `read'.
4243 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
4246 prints format version.
4249 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
4250 and format it accordingly.
4252 *** Configuration Variables
4254 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
4255 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
4256 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
4257 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
4260 format:symbol-case-conv
4261 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
4262 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
4263 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
4264 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
4265 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
4267 format:iobj-case-conv
4268 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
4269 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
4272 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
4275 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
4281 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
4282 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
4283 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
4284 `format' padding style.
4287 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
4288 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
4289 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
4290 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
4294 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
4295 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
4296 directive parameters or modifiers)).
4299 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
4300 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
4301 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
4302 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
4303 parameters or modifiers)).
4306 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
4308 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
4310 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
4311 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
4313 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
4314 string-downcase! functions.
4316 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
4317 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
4319 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
4322 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
4325 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
4326 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
4328 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
4330 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
4331 the symbol had be read by `read'.
4333 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
4334 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
4335 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
4336 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
4337 would if STRING were input.
4339 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
4341 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
4342 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
4343 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
4344 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
4347 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
4349 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
4350 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
4353 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
4355 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
4356 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
4358 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
4359 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
4361 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
4362 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
4363 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
4364 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
4366 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
4367 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
4369 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
4370 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
4371 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
4373 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
4374 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
4376 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
4377 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
4378 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
4379 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
4380 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
4382 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
4383 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
4384 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
4385 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
4386 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
4387 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4389 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4390 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4391 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4394 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4395 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4396 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4397 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4398 the following grammar:
4399 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4400 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4401 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4402 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4403 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4404 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4405 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4406 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4407 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4408 last option in its combination)
4410 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4411 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4412 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4413 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4415 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4416 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4417 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4419 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4420 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4421 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4423 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4424 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4425 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4426 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4427 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4428 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4429 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4430 ordinary argument strings.
4432 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4433 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4434 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4435 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4437 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4438 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4440 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4441 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4442 - a required option is omitted
4443 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4444 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4445 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4446 - an option predicate fails
4451 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4454 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4455 (verbose (required? #f)
4458 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4459 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4460 (predicate ,string?))))
4462 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4463 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4465 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4466 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4467 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4468 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4471 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4473 It will be removed in a few releases.
4475 ** New syntax: lambda*
4476 ** New syntax: define*
4477 ** New syntax: define*-public
4478 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4479 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4480 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4482 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4483 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4484 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4485 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4486 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4488 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4489 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4490 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4492 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4494 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4495 and examples for `lambda*':
4498 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4500 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4501 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4502 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4503 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4504 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4505 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4506 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4507 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4509 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4511 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4512 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4513 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4514 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4516 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4517 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4518 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4519 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4520 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4521 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4522 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4523 and until the procedure is called.
4525 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4527 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4528 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4529 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4530 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4531 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4532 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4533 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4534 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4535 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4536 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4538 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4539 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4540 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4541 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4544 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4546 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4547 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4548 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4549 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4551 ** New syntax: and-let*
4552 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4554 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4555 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4556 (<variable> <expression>)
4559 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4560 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4561 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4564 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4565 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4566 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4567 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4568 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4569 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4570 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4572 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4573 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4574 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4575 shadow earlier bindings.
4577 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4579 ** New sorting functions
4581 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4582 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4583 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4584 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4586 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4587 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4590 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4591 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4592 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4594 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4595 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4596 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4597 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4599 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4600 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4601 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4602 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4603 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4606 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4607 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4608 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4609 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4610 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4611 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4613 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4614 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4615 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4617 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4618 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4619 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4622 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4623 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4624 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4626 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4627 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4629 ** New built-in random number support
4631 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4632 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4633 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4634 returned have a uniform distribution.
4636 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4637 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4638 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4639 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4640 effect of the `random' operation.
4642 *** New variable: *random-state*
4643 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4644 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4645 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4646 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4647 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4650 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4651 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4652 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4653 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4654 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4656 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4657 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4658 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4659 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4660 initialized using SEED.
4662 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4663 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4664 range between 0 and 1.
4666 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4667 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4668 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4669 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4670 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4671 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4672 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4674 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4675 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4676 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4677 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4678 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4679 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4681 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4682 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4683 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4684 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4686 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4687 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4688 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4689 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4691 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4692 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4693 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4695 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4697 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4700 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4701 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4704 ** New function: make-guardian
4705 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4706 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4707 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4708 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4709 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4711 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4712 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4713 one object if at all.
4715 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4716 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4717 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4719 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4720 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4721 read again in last-in first-out order.
4723 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4724 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4726 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4728 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4729 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4730 file position is used.
4732 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4733 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4734 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4736 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4737 redefined using seek.
4739 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4740 size is not supplied.
4742 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4743 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4745 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4746 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4748 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4750 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4751 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4752 and returns the contents as a single string.
4754 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4755 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4756 lists in serial order.
4758 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4759 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4760 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4762 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4763 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4764 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4765 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4767 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4768 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4769 and #f if an error occured.
4771 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4773 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4774 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4775 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4776 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4778 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4780 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4783 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4785 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4788 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4792 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4793 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4795 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4796 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4800 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4802 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4804 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4805 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4807 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4809 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4810 might change when we get the new module system.
4812 ** The smob interface
4814 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4815 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4817 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4819 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4823 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4824 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4825 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4826 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4827 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4828 will be freed by the default free function.
4830 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4831 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4832 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4833 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4835 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4836 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4837 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4838 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4840 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4842 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4843 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4847 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4848 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4849 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4851 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4852 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4853 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4854 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4856 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4857 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4858 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4860 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4861 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4862 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4863 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4865 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4866 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4867 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4869 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4873 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4875 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4876 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4877 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4879 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4880 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4881 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4883 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4884 a string port's buffer.
4886 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4887 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4888 function pointers which together define the current random number
4889 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4890 number library functions.
4892 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4895 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4896 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4899 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4900 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4902 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4903 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4905 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4906 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4909 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4910 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4911 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4912 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4914 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4915 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4916 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4917 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4918 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4919 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4920 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4922 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4923 by libguile and the application.
4925 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4926 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4927 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4928 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4930 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4931 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4933 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4934 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4935 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4937 ** Random number library functions
4938 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4939 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4940 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4942 The default random state is stored in:
4944 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4945 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4946 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4951 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4953 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4954 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4955 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4956 isn't a random state.
4958 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4959 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4961 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4962 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4963 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4964 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4966 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4967 Return 32 random bits.
4969 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4970 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4972 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4973 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4975 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4976 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4978 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4979 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4981 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4982 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4983 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4987 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4989 * Changes to the distribution
4991 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4992 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4993 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4996 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4997 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4998 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
5000 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
5001 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
5002 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
5003 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
5006 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
5007 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
5008 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
5010 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5012 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
5014 *** Function: batch-mode?
5016 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
5019 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
5021 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
5022 case has not been implemented.
5024 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
5025 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
5026 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
5029 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
5030 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
5032 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
5034 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5036 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
5038 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
5039 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
5042 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
5043 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
5044 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
5045 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
5048 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
5050 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
5051 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
5052 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
5053 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
5054 find those libraries.
5056 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
5057 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
5060 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
5062 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
5063 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
5064 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
5065 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
5067 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
5068 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
5069 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
5073 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
5075 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
5076 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
5077 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
5080 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
5081 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
5082 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
5083 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
5085 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
5086 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
5089 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
5090 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
5091 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
5092 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
5093 compiler where to find the libraries.
5095 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
5096 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
5097 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
5099 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
5100 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
5101 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
5102 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
5103 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
5107 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5109 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
5110 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
5111 internationalization support.
5113 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
5114 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
5115 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
5116 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
5117 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
5119 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
5120 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
5121 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
5122 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
5123 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
5125 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
5126 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
5127 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
5128 any GNU mirror site.
5130 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
5132 ** New function: add-history STRING
5133 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
5134 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
5135 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
5137 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
5139 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
5140 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
5141 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
5144 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
5145 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
5146 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
5148 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
5150 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
5153 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
5154 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
5157 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
5158 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
5159 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
5160 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
5161 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
5162 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
5164 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
5165 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
5166 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
5167 of the form mentioned above.
5169 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
5170 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
5171 returned in the special `rest' list.
5173 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
5174 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
5176 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
5178 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
5180 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
5182 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
5183 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
5184 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
5185 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
5186 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
5187 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
5188 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
5189 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
5192 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
5194 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
5196 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
5197 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
5200 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
5201 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
5202 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
5206 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
5207 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
5208 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
5209 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
5210 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
5211 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
5212 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
5213 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
5216 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
5218 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
5219 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
5220 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
5222 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
5224 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
5225 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
5227 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
5228 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
5229 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
5231 Why do we have this function?
5232 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
5233 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
5234 primitive, and display it differently, and
5235 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
5236 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
5239 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
5240 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
5243 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
5244 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
5245 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
5246 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
5248 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
5249 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
5252 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
5253 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
5255 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
5257 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
5258 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
5259 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
5260 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
5261 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
5262 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
5263 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
5266 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
5268 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
5269 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
5271 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
5272 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
5273 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
5274 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
5275 properly continue the print chain.
5277 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
5278 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
5279 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
5280 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
5281 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
5282 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
5283 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
5284 print-state, it is simply ignored.
5286 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
5287 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
5288 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
5289 safest to not check for these pairs.
5291 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
5292 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
5293 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
5294 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
5296 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
5298 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
5299 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
5301 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
5303 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
5305 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
5306 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
5307 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
5309 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
5310 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
5311 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
5313 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
5314 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
5315 the following functions and macros:
5317 Function: make-fluid
5319 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
5320 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
5321 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
5322 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
5323 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
5325 Function: fluid? OBJ
5327 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
5329 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
5330 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
5332 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
5333 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
5335 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
5337 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
5338 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
5339 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
5340 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
5341 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
5342 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
5343 modified by `with-fluids*'.
5345 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
5347 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
5348 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
5349 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
5350 should evaluate to a fluid.
5352 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
5354 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
5355 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
5356 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
5357 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
5358 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
5360 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
5363 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
5365 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
5367 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
5369 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
5372 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
5373 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
5374 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
5375 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
5376 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
5379 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
5380 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
5381 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
5383 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
5384 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
5385 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
5387 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5388 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5389 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5390 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5392 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5393 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5394 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5395 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5397 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5398 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5399 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5400 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5402 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5403 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5404 their revealed counts set to zero.
5406 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5407 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5409 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5410 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5412 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5413 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5415 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5416 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5417 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5419 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5420 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5421 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5423 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5424 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5425 default environment inherited by child processes.
5427 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5428 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5429 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5431 The return value is unspecified.
5433 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5434 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5435 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5436 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5437 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5439 The return value is unspecified.
5441 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5442 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5450 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5451 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5454 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5457 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5458 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5459 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5461 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5462 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5463 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5464 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5467 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5468 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5470 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5471 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5472 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5473 the `environ' procedure.
5475 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5476 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5479 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5480 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5482 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5483 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5484 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5485 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5487 *** procedure: times
5488 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5489 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5490 return a selected component:
5493 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5497 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5500 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5504 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5505 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5509 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5510 terminated child processes.
5512 ** Removed: list-length
5513 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5514 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5516 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5518 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5520 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5522 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5523 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5524 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5525 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5527 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5528 extra complexity it introduces.
5530 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5531 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5533 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5534 variable to any non-empty value.
5536 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5537 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5539 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5541 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5542 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5544 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5546 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5547 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5549 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5551 ** vector handling routines
5553 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5554 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5555 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5556 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5557 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5559 ** pair and list routines
5561 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5564 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5566 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5569 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5571 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5573 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5574 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5575 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5576 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5577 site-specific initialization code.
5579 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5580 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5581 initialization processes.
5583 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5584 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5585 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5586 initialized properly.
5588 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5589 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5590 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5592 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5593 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5594 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5595 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5596 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5598 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5600 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5601 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5602 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5603 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5604 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5606 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5607 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5608 which look like this:
5611 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5613 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5614 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5617 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5618 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5621 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5623 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5624 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5625 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5627 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5628 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5629 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5630 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5631 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5633 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5634 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5636 int (*free) (SCM port);
5637 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5638 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5639 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5643 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5644 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5645 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5647 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5650 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5651 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5652 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5654 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5655 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5656 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5659 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5663 struct timeval *timeout);
5665 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5666 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5667 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5668 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5669 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5670 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5672 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5673 scm_catch_body_t body,
5675 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5678 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5679 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5680 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5681 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5682 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5683 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5685 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5687 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5690 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5691 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5692 spawning threads from application C code.
5694 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5695 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5696 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5697 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5698 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5699 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5701 ** Removed functions:
5703 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5704 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5706 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5708 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5709 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5711 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5713 ** mbstrings are now removed
5715 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5716 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5718 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5720 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5721 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5722 their new names and arguments:
5724 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5725 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5726 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5727 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5730 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5732 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5734 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5737 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5739 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5740 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5741 pass a #f arg to catch.
5743 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5745 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5746 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5749 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5750 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5751 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5752 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5753 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5754 reclaim its storage.
5756 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5757 worrying that some other function you call will call
5758 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5759 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5760 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5761 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5764 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5766 * Changes to the distribution
5768 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5769 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5772 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5773 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5775 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5776 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5778 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5780 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5781 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5782 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5784 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5786 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5787 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5788 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5789 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5790 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5791 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5793 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5794 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5795 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5798 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5799 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5800 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5801 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5803 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5804 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5805 libraries to your link command:
5807 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5808 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5809 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5810 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5812 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5813 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5814 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5816 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5818 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5819 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5822 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5824 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5825 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5826 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5827 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5828 searched is system dependent.
5830 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5832 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5834 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5836 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5837 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5839 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5841 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5842 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5843 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5844 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5845 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5848 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5850 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5851 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5852 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5853 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5854 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5856 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5858 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5859 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5861 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5863 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5864 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5865 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5868 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5870 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5871 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5872 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5873 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5875 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5876 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5878 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5880 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5881 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5883 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5885 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5886 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5894 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5896 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5897 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5898 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5899 a more informative way.
5901 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5902 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5903 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5904 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5905 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5906 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5908 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5909 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5912 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5913 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5914 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5917 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5918 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5919 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5920 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5921 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5922 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5924 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5925 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5926 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5927 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5930 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5931 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5932 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5933 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5934 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5935 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5937 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5938 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5939 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5940 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5941 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5943 *** regexp functions
5945 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5946 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5947 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5949 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5950 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5951 with SCSH regular expressions.
5953 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5954 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5955 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5956 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5958 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5959 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5960 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5961 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5963 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5964 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5965 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5966 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5967 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5968 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5970 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5971 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5972 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5973 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5974 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5976 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5978 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5979 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5980 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5981 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5983 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5984 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5985 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5987 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5988 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5990 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5993 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5994 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5995 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5997 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5998 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5999 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
6001 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
6002 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
6003 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
6004 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
6005 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
6008 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
6010 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
6011 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
6012 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
6013 used when different portions of a string are passed to
6014 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
6015 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
6017 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
6018 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
6019 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
6021 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
6022 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
6025 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
6026 and replace them with the contents of another string.
6028 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
6029 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
6030 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
6031 may be one of the following arguments:
6033 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
6035 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
6037 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
6038 the regexp match is written.
6040 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
6041 following the regexp match is written.
6043 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
6044 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
6047 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
6048 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
6049 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
6050 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
6051 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
6052 which should be matched against this regular expression.
6054 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
6057 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
6058 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
6059 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
6060 written out to PORT.
6062 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
6063 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
6064 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
6065 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
6066 will return after processing a single match.
6068 *** Match Structures
6070 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
6071 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
6072 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
6073 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
6074 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
6075 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
6078 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
6079 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
6080 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
6081 information about the original target string that was matched against a
6082 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
6084 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
6085 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
6086 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
6088 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
6089 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
6090 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
6091 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
6092 number N did not match, return `#f'.
6094 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
6095 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
6097 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
6098 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
6100 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
6101 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
6103 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
6104 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
6106 **** Function: match:count MATCH
6107 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
6108 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
6109 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
6111 **** Function: match:string MATCH
6112 Return the original TARGET string.
6114 *** Backslash Escapes
6116 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
6117 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
6118 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
6119 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
6120 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
6121 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
6123 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
6124 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
6125 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
6126 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
6127 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
6128 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
6129 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
6130 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
6132 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
6133 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
6134 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
6135 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
6136 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
6137 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
6138 each match a single backslash in the target string.
6140 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
6141 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
6142 return the resulting string.
6144 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
6145 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
6146 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
6147 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
6148 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
6149 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
6150 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
6151 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
6152 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
6153 translated to the single character `*'.
6155 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
6156 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
6157 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
6158 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
6159 consecutive backslashes:
6161 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
6163 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
6164 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
6165 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
6167 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
6168 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
6169 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
6170 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
6171 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
6172 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
6174 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
6176 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
6177 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
6178 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
6179 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
6180 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
6181 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
6182 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
6183 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
6184 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
6185 cumbersome escape syntax.
6187 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6189 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6191 * Changes to system call interfaces:
6193 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
6196 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
6198 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
6200 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
6203 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
6204 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
6205 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
6206 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
6207 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
6209 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
6210 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
6211 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
6212 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
6213 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
6214 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
6215 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
6218 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
6219 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
6220 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
6223 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
6224 `force-output' on every port open for output.
6226 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
6227 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
6228 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
6229 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
6230 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
6231 installed, you can say:
6233 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
6236 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6238 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
6239 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
6240 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
6241 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
6242 new dynamic roots and threads.
6245 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
6247 * Changes to the distribution.
6249 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
6251 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
6252 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
6253 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
6254 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
6255 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
6256 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
6257 programming language. These are packaged together because the
6258 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
6260 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
6263 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
6264 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
6269 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6271 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
6272 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
6274 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
6275 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
6276 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
6277 the (command-line) function.
6278 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
6279 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
6280 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
6282 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
6283 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
6284 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
6285 command line arguments
6286 -ds do -s script at this point
6287 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
6288 -h, --help display this help and exit
6289 -v, --version display version information and exit
6290 \ read arguments from following script lines
6292 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
6293 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
6295 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6298 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6302 (main (command-line))
6304 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
6306 ekko a speckled gecko
6308 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
6309 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
6310 following list of command-line arguments:
6312 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
6314 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
6315 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
6316 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
6317 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
6318 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6320 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
6322 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
6324 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
6325 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
6328 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
6329 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
6330 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
6331 SCSH) for circumventing them.
6333 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
6334 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
6335 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
6336 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
6338 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
6342 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
6346 If the user invokes this script as follows:
6348 ekko a speckled gecko
6350 Unix expands this into
6352 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
6354 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
6355 read from the second line of the script, producing:
6357 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6359 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
6360 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
6362 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
6363 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
6364 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
6365 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
6366 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
6367 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
6368 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
6369 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
6370 it only terminates the argument list.)
6371 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
6372 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
6373 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
6374 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
6375 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
6376 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
6377 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
6378 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
6380 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6382 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
6383 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
6384 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
6385 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
6386 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6388 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6389 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6390 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6392 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6394 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6395 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6396 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6397 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6400 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6401 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6402 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6404 * Changes to Scheme functions
6406 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6407 and disabled by default.
6409 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6410 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6411 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6412 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6414 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6416 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6418 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6419 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6421 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6422 (read-set! keywords #f)
6424 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6425 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6426 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6429 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6430 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6431 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6434 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6435 support for Scheme functions.
6437 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6438 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6439 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6440 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6443 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6444 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6445 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6448 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6449 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6450 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6453 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6454 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6455 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6456 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6457 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6458 display the result as a prompt.
6459 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6461 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6462 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6463 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6466 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6467 procedure of zero arguments.
6469 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6470 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6471 argument is bound in the current module.
6473 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6474 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6475 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6476 public bindings into the current module.
6478 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6479 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6481 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6482 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6484 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6485 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6487 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6488 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6490 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6491 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6493 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6494 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6495 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6496 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6497 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6499 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6500 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6501 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6502 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6504 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6507 ** Changes to I/O functions
6509 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6510 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6511 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6513 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6514 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6515 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6517 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6518 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6520 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6521 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6522 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6523 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6525 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6527 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6528 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6530 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6531 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6532 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6533 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6534 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6537 'trim omit delimiter from result
6538 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6539 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6540 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6542 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6544 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6545 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6547 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6548 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6549 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6550 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6551 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6553 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6554 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6555 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6557 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6558 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6559 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6560 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6562 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6563 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6565 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6566 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6568 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6570 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6571 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6572 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6573 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6574 a delimiting character.
6575 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6577 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6578 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6579 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6580 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6581 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6582 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6584 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6585 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6587 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6588 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6589 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6591 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6592 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6593 the array to read and write.
6595 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6596 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6599 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6601 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6604 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6605 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6606 Values for COMMAND are:
6608 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6609 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6610 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6611 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6612 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6613 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6614 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6615 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6617 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6619 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6620 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6621 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6622 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6623 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6624 corresponding return set will be the same.
6626 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6629 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6630 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6631 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6632 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6633 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6634 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6635 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6636 special file being created.
6638 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6639 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6641 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6642 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6643 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6644 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6645 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6646 and originating address.
6648 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6649 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6650 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6652 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6655 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6656 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6659 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6660 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6661 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6662 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6663 this function returns #f.
6665 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6666 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6667 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6670 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6671 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6672 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6675 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6676 a valid STATUS value.
6678 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6680 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6681 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6683 Component Accessor Setter
6684 ========================= ============ ============
6685 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6686 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6687 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6688 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6689 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6690 year tm:year set-tm:year
6691 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6692 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6693 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6694 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6695 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6697 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6698 describing the host system:
6701 ============================================== ================
6702 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6703 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6704 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6705 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6706 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6708 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6709 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6710 system's user database:
6713 ====================== =================
6714 user name passwd:name
6715 user password passwd:passwd
6718 real name passwd:gecos
6719 home directory passwd:dir
6720 shell program passwd:shell
6722 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6723 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6724 system's group database:
6727 ======================= ============
6728 group name group:name
6729 group password group:passwd
6731 group members group:mem
6733 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6734 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6738 ========================= ===============
6739 official name of host hostent:name
6740 alias list hostent:aliases
6741 host address type hostent:addrtype
6742 length of address hostent:length
6743 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6745 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6746 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6750 ========================= ===============
6751 official name of net netent:name
6752 alias list netent:aliases
6753 net number type netent:addrtype
6754 net number netent:net
6756 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6757 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6761 ========================= ===============
6762 official protocol name protoent:name
6763 alias list protoent:aliases
6764 protocol number protoent:proto
6766 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6767 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6771 ========================= ===============
6772 official service name servent:name
6773 alias list servent:aliases
6774 port number servent:port
6775 protocol to use servent:proto
6777 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6778 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6781 ======================================== ===============
6782 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6783 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6784 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6785 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6787 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6788 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6789 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6791 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6792 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6794 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6795 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6797 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6798 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6800 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6802 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6804 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6805 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6806 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6808 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6809 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6810 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6811 return the remaining characters as a string.
6813 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6814 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6815 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6817 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6819 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6821 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6824 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6827 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6828 and returns the array
6830 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6831 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6832 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6834 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6836 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6837 symbol's value from C code:
6839 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6840 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6841 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6842 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6844 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6845 without assigning them a value.
6847 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6848 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6849 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6851 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6852 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6853 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6855 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6856 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6858 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6859 doesn't actually care about that.
6861 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6862 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6863 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6865 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6866 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6867 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6868 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6869 which we have just created and initialized.
6871 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6872 should one occur. We call it like this:
6873 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6875 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6876 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6877 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6878 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6879 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6880 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6883 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6884 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6885 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6886 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6887 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6888 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6889 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6892 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6893 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6894 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6895 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6896 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6899 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6900 scm_internal_catch, except:
6902 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6903 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6904 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6905 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6908 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6909 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6910 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6912 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6913 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6914 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6915 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6918 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6919 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6920 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6922 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6923 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6924 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6925 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6926 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6928 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6929 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6930 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6932 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6933 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6934 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6936 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6937 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6939 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6940 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6941 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6944 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6945 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6946 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6947 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6948 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6949 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6950 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6953 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6954 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6956 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6957 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6958 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6959 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6960 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6963 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6964 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6966 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6967 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6970 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6971 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6973 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6976 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6977 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6978 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6979 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6980 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6981 given the following arguments:
6983 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6985 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6987 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6989 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6992 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6993 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6994 command-line arguments.
6996 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6997 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6998 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6999 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
7000 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
7001 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
7004 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
7007 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
7008 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
7010 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
7011 rearranged slightly. They are now:
7013 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7014 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7015 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
7016 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
7018 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7019 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7021 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7022 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
7023 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
7024 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
7026 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
7027 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
7029 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
7030 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
7032 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
7034 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
7035 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
7036 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
7039 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
7040 returns a port instead of an FD object.
7042 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
7043 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
7048 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
7051 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
7053 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
7054 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
7055 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
7056 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
7058 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
7060 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
7062 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
7063 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
7064 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
7065 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
7066 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
7067 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
7068 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
7069 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
7070 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
7071 for more information.
7073 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
7074 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
7076 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
7077 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
7078 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
7079 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
7080 following two lines at the top of the file:
7082 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7085 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
7086 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
7087 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
7089 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
7091 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
7093 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
7096 (display (car args))
7097 (if (pair? (cdr args))
7099 (loop (cdr args)))))
7102 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
7103 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
7104 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
7105 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
7106 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
7107 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
7111 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
7114 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
7117 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
7119 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
7120 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
7121 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
7122 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
7123 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
7126 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
7127 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
7128 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
7129 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
7130 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
7133 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
7136 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
7137 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
7138 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
7141 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
7142 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
7143 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
7145 to see a backtrace, and
7146 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
7147 to see them by default.
7151 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
7153 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
7155 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
7156 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
7159 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
7160 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
7161 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
7162 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
7165 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
7166 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
7167 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
7168 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
7169 functions which inspired them.
7171 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
7172 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
7176 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
7178 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
7180 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
7181 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
7184 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
7185 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
7186 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
7188 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
7189 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
7190 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
7191 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
7192 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
7194 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
7196 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
7197 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
7198 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
7201 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
7204 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
7206 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
7207 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
7208 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
7209 above should serve their purposes.
7211 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
7212 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
7213 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
7214 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
7216 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
7219 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
7220 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
7221 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
7222 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
7224 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
7225 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
7226 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
7227 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
7229 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
7230 for the `read' function.
7233 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
7234 to that of `integer?'.
7236 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
7237 use the R4RS names for these functions.
7239 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
7240 it simply returns the object's property list.
7242 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
7243 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
7244 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
7245 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
7247 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
7249 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
7252 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
7254 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
7255 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
7257 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
7259 void (*main_func) (),
7262 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
7263 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
7264 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
7265 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
7266 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
7268 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
7269 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
7270 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
7271 know which arguments have been processed.
7273 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
7274 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
7275 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
7276 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
7277 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
7279 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
7280 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
7281 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
7282 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
7283 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
7284 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
7285 people from making that mistake.
7287 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
7288 convenient ways to override these when desired.
7290 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
7292 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
7296 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
7299 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
7300 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
7301 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
7302 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
7305 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
7306 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
7307 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
7308 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
7311 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
7312 have been added to the Guile library.
7314 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
7315 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
7316 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
7319 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
7320 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
7321 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
7323 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
7324 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
7325 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
7326 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
7327 argument from the list.
7330 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
7333 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
7334 null-terminated string, and returns it.
7336 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
7337 to a Scheme port object.
7339 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
7340 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
7345 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
7347 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
7348 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
7349 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
7350 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
7351 code as a special datatype.
7353 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
7354 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
7355 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
7356 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
7357 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
7360 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
7361 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
7362 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
7363 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
7364 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
7366 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
7369 Copyright information:
7371 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
7373 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
7374 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
7375 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
7376 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
7378 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
7379 of this document, or of portions of it,
7380 under the above conditions, provided also that they
7381 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
7386 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"