1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
8 Note: During the 1.9 series, we will keep an incremental NEWS for the
9 latest prerelease, and a full NEWS corresponding to 1.8 -> 2.0.
12 Changes in 1.9.12 (since the 1.9.11 prerelease):
14 ** Support for SRFI-27
16 SRFI-27 "Sources of Random Bits" is now available.
20 `(rnrs bytevectors)' and `(rnrs io ports)' now have version information,
21 like the rest of the modules. The `(rnrs unicode)' module is now
22 re-exported by `(rnrs)'. Top-level `import' forms may have more than one
23 clause. Warnings about duplicate bindings have been fixed, along with
24 some typos in the modules. There were a number of other bugfixes as well.
26 For the current list of known R6RS incompatibilities, see "R6RS
27 Incompatibilities" in the manual.
29 ** Documentation for standard R6RS libraries
31 See "R6RS Standard Libraries" in the manual, for more details.
33 ** Support for `letrec*'
35 Guile now supports `letrec*', a recursive lexical binding operator in
36 which the identifiers are bound in order. See "Local Bindings" in the
37 manual, for more details.
39 ** Internal definitions now expand to `letrec*'
41 Following the R6RS, internal definitions now expand to letrec* instead
42 of letrec. The following program is invalid for R5RS, but valid for
47 (define baz (+ bar 20))
50 ;; R5RS and Guile <= 1.8:
51 (foo) => Unbound variable: bar
52 ;; R6RS and Guile >= 2.0:
55 This change should not affect correct R5RS programs, or programs written
56 in earlier Guile dialects.
58 ** Recursive debugging REPL on error
60 When Guile sees an error, instead of dropping into a special debugging
61 prompt, it will enter a recursive REPL in the dynamic context of the
62 error. See "Error Handling" in the manual, for more information.
64 A recursive REPL is the same as any other REPL, except that it
65 has been augmented with debugging information, so that one can inspect
66 the context of the error. The debugger has been integrated with the REPL
67 via a set of debugging meta-commands.
69 For example, one may access a backtrace with `,backtrace' (or
70 `,bt'). See "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for more
73 ** New `error-message' meta-command at the REPL
75 The new `error-message' meta-command displays the message associated
76 with the error that started the current debugging REPL. See "Debug
77 Commands" in the manual.
79 ** Readline tab completion for arguments
81 When readline is enabled, tab completion works for arguments too, not
82 just for the operator position.
84 ** Various REPL robustness fixes
86 The REPL no longer enters the debugger when an error occurs at read-time
87 and compile-time, or when executing meta-commands. Additionally, the
88 REPL is more strict about the ports that it uses, saving the current
89 input and output ports at startup and using those ports when entering
90 recursive prompts. This allows debugging of an error within
91 e.g. `call-with-input-port'.
93 Finally, Ctrl-d can now be used to exit a recursive REPL, dropping the
94 user back to the parent REPL.
96 ** Better procedure name and source location propagation
98 There was a bug in 1.9.11 which would leave most procedures un-named;
99 this and other previous deficiencies have been fixed.
101 ** New macro: `current-source-location'
103 The macro returns the current source location (to be documented).
105 ** `module-filename' field and accessor
107 Modules now record the file in which they are defined. This field may be
108 accessed with the new `module-filename' procedure.
110 ** Deprecate the old `scm-style-repl'
112 The following bindings from boot-9 are now found in `(ice-9
113 scm-style-repl)': `scm-style-repl', `error-catching-loop',
114 `error-catching-repl', `bad-throw', `scm-repl-silent'
115 `assert-repl-silence', `repl-print-unspecified',
116 `assert-repl-print-unspecified', `scm-repl-verbose',
117 `assert-repl-verbosity', `scm-repl-prompt', `set-repl-prompt!', `repl',
118 `default-pre-unwind-handler', `handle-system-error',
120 The following bindings have been deprecated, with no replacement:
121 `pre-unwind-handler-dispatch'.
123 The following bindings have been totally removed:
124 `before-signal-stack'.
126 Deprecated forwarding shims have been installed so that users that
127 expect these bindings in the main namespace will still work, but receive
128 a deprecation warning.
130 ** Passing a number as the destination of `format' is deprecated
132 The `format' procedure in `(ice-9 format)' now emits a deprecation
133 warning if a number is passed as its first argument.
135 ** Miscellaneous other deprecations
137 `apply-to-args', `has-suffix?', `scheme-file-suffix'
138 `get-option', `for-next-option', `display-usage-report',
139 `transform-usage-lambda', `collect', `set-batch-mode?!'
141 ** All core defmacros reimplemented hygienically
143 All macros present in the default environment are now implemented with
144 syntax-case. This should not have practical ramifications, beyond those
145 listed below in "Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not
146 be referenced by nonhygienic macros".
148 ** Random generator state may be serialized to a datum
150 `random-state->datum' will serialize a random state to a datum, which
151 may be written out, read back in later, and revivified using
152 `datum->random-state'. See "Random" in the manual, for more details.
154 ** New primitive: `tmpfile'.
156 See "File System" in the manual.
158 ** Modules load within a known environment
160 It takes a few procedure calls to define a module, and those procedure
161 calls need to be in scope. Now we ensure that the current module when
162 loading a module is one that has the needed bindings, instead of relying
165 ** Remove encoding of versions into the file system
167 It used to be that, when loading a module, if the user specified a
168 version, Guile would grovel about in the file system to find the
169 module. This process was slow and not robust. This support has been
170 removed: modules are once more always loaded via `primitive-load-path'.
172 Module versions in the file system may be added again in the future, in
173 an extensible way. Contact bug-guile@gnu.org with patches.
175 ** Alex Shinn's pattern matcher for (ice-9 match).
177 Guile's copy of Andrew K. Wright's `match' library has been replaced by
178 a compatible hygienic implementation by Alex Shinn. It is now
179 documented, see "Pattern Matching" in the manual.
181 Compared to Andrew K. Wright's `match', the new `match' lacks
182 `match-define', `match:error-control', `match:set-error-control',
183 `match:error', `match:set-error', and all structure-related procedures.
185 ** Better debugging for psyntax
187 We now build psyntax-pp.go directly from psyntax.scm, which allows us to
188 preserve the original source locations and variable names. Git users
189 will also be pleased to note that psyntax-pp.scm is no longer
190 automatically regenerated from a normal `make' invocation.
194 Guile's build is visually quieter, due to the use of Automake 1.11's
195 AM_SILENT_RULES. Build as `make V=1' to see all of the output.
197 ** Better REPL options interface
199 The set of REPL options is now fixed and typechecked -- you can't
200 mistakenly set an option that doesn't exist, or set an value with an
201 incorrect type. The following options have been added: `prompt',
202 `compile-options', and `value-history'.
204 The new `repl-default-option-set!' procedure from `(system repl common)'
205 can set default options for future REPLs. `repl-default-prompt-set!' is
206 a convenience procedure to set default prompts.
208 ** `*unspecified*' is identifier syntax
210 `*unspecified*' is no longer a variable, so it is optimized properly by
211 the compiler, and is not `set!'-able.
213 ** `set-batch-mode?!' replaced by `ensure-batch-mode!'
215 "Batch mode" is a flag used to tell a program that it is not running
216 interactively. One usually turns it on after a fork. It may not be
217 turned off. `ensure-batch-mode!' deprecates the old `set-batch-mode?!',
218 because it is a better interface, as it can only turn on batch mode, not
221 ** Support for settable identifier syntax
223 Following the R6RS, "variable transformers" are settable
224 identifier-syntax. See "Identifier macros" in the manual, for more
227 ** Deprecate `save-stack', `the-last-stack'
229 It used to be that the way to debug programs in Guile was to capture the
230 stack at the time of error, drop back to the REPL, then debug that
231 stack. But this approach didn't compose, was tricky to get right in the
232 presence of threads, and was not very powerful.
234 So `save-stack', `stack-saved?', and `the-last-stack' have been moved to
235 `(ice-9 save-stack)', with deprecated bindings left in the root module.
237 ** Compilation warnings at the REPL
239 By default, Guile now prints compile-time warnings for code entered at
240 the REPL. Current warnings are for unbound variables and mismatched
243 ** syntax-case treats `_' as a placeholder
245 Following R6RS, a `_' in a syntax-rules or syntax-case pattern matches
246 anything, and binds no pattern variables. Unlike the R6RS, Guile also
247 permits `_' to be in the literals list for a pattern.
249 ** Remove old Emacs interface
251 Guile had an unused `--emacs' command line argument that was supposed to
252 help when running Guile inside Emacs. This option has been removed, and
253 the helper functions `named-module-use!' and `load-emacs-interface' have
256 ** `top-repl' has its own module
258 The `top-repl' binding, called with Guile is run interactively, is now
259 is its own module, `(ice-9 top-repl)'. A deprecated forwarding shim was
260 left in the default environment.
262 ** Value history in the REPL on by default
264 By default, the REPL will save computed values in variables like `$1',
265 `$2', and the like. There are programmatic and interactive interfaces to
266 control this. See "Value History" in the manual, for more information.
268 ** New threads are in `(guile-user)' by default, not `(guile)'
270 It used to be that a new thread entering Guile would do so in the
271 `(guile)' module, unless this was the first time Guile was initialized,
272 in which case it was `(guile-user)'. This has been fixed to have all
273 new threads unknown to Guile default to `(guile-user)'.
275 ** Backtrace improvements
277 It used to be that backtraces showed a couple of extra frames, from the
278 implementation of prompts. This has been fixed. Also, backtraces now
279 print column numbers in addition to line numbers, if possible.
281 ** `display-error' takes a frame
283 The `display-error' / `scm_display_error' helper now takes a frame as an
284 argument instead of a stack. Stacks are still supported in deprecated
285 builds. Additionally, `display-error' will again source location
286 information for the error.
288 ** Better error reporting from the VM
290 If a value of the wrong type is passed to `car', `cdr', `set-car!',
291 `set-cdr!', `apply', a struct accessor, or a bytevector accessors, the
292 error from the VM now indicates which procedure failed, instead of
293 lumping them all into the non-helpful "VM error". In addition, unbound
294 variable reporting is now more helpful.
296 ** No more `(ice-9 debug)'
298 This module had some debugging helpers that are no longer applicable to
299 the current debugging model. Importing this module will produce a
300 deprecation warning. Users should contact bug-guile for support.
302 ** No more `(system vm debug)'
304 This module is replaced by the recursive debugging REPL.
306 ** File ports handle binary mode and coding declarations
308 Binary file ports are supported again, by opening files in the
309 ISO-8859-1 encoding. If an encoding is not specified for textual ports,
310 Guile now grovels the file for a "coding:" directive, and uses that if
311 possible. See the documentation for `open-file', for more information.
313 ** R6RS character hex escapes on by default
315 However, R6RS character escapes within strings are incompatible with
316 older Guile escape sequences, so they still need the reader option
317 turned on. See "Reader Options" in the manual, for more information.
319 ** Fix random number generator on 64-bit platforms
321 There was a nasty bug on 64-bit platforms in which asking for a random
322 integer with a range between 2**32 and 2**64 caused a segfault. After
323 many embarrassing iterations, this was fixed.
325 ** Add `vhash-fold*' in `(ice-9 vlist)'
327 See "VLists" in the manual, for more information.
329 ** Timestamps on autocompiled files checked for freshness, not equality
331 It used to be that to load a `.go' file instead of a `.scm' file, we
332 required that the timestamp of the `.go' file be equal to that of the
333 `.scm'. This has been relaxed to accept newer `.go' files, to integrate
334 better with `make' tools.
336 ** Use of nanosecond-resolution timestamps
338 The auto-compilation logic now compares the source and compiled file
339 timestamps using nano-second resolution, when available.
341 ** Simplifications and callback support added to the `(system foreign)'.
343 Guile's foreign function interface was simplified a great
344 deal. Interested users should see "Foreign Function Interface" in the
345 manual, for full details.
347 In addition, the new procedure `procedure->pointer' makes it possible to
348 use Scheme procedures as "callbacks" to C functions.
350 ** User Scheme code may be placed in a version-specific path
352 Before, there was only one way to install user Scheme code to a
353 version-specific Guile directory: install to Guile's own path,
354 e.g. /usr/share/guile/2.0. The site directory,
355 e.g. /usr/share/guile/site, was unversioned. This has been changed to
356 add a version-specific site directory, e.g. /usr/share/guile/site/2.0,
357 searched before the global site directory.
359 ** Docstrings for `syntax-rules' macros
361 The `syntax-rules' form now accepts a docstring between the literals and
364 ** SRFI-1 partly rewritten in Scheme
366 Some of the SRFI-1 procedures that were written in C "for efficiency"
367 have been rewritten in Scheme.
369 ** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes
371 Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information.
375 Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series):
377 * New modules (see the manual for details)
379 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
380 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
381 ** `(rnrs bytevectors)', the R6RS bytevector API
382 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
383 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
384 ** `(ice-9 vlist)', lists with constant-time random access; hash lists
385 ** `(system foreign)', foreign function interface
386 ** `(sxml match)', a pattern matcher for SXML
387 ** `(srfi srfi-9 gnu)', extensions to the SRFI-9 record library
388 ** `(system vm coverage)', a line-by-line code coverage library
390 ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
392 The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
393 toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
394 "Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
396 ** Integration of lalr-scm, a parser generator
398 Guile has included Dominique Boucher's fine `lalr-scm' parser generator
399 as `(system base lalr)'. See "LALR(1) Parsing" in the manual, for more
402 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
404 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
406 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
407 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
409 ** Evaluating Scheme code does not use the C stack.
411 Besides when compiling Guile itself, Guile no longer uses a recursive C
412 function as an evaluator. This obviates the need to check the C stack
413 pointer for overflow. Continuations still capture the C stack, however.
415 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
416 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
418 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
419 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
420 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
423 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
425 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. While
426 it is self-documenting to an extent, the new REPL has not yet been
427 documented in the manual. This will be fixed before 2.0.
429 ** New reader options: `square-brackets' and `r6rs-hex-escapes'
431 The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
432 `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
433 parentheses. This option is on by default.
435 When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
436 will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS.
438 ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
440 The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
441 profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
442 time. See `,help profile' for more information.
444 Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
445 during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
449 By default, if an exception is raised at the REPL and not caught by user
450 code, Guile will drop the user into a debugger. The user may request a
451 backtrace, inspect frames, or continue raising the exception. Full
452 documentation is available from within the debugger.
454 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
456 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
459 ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
461 Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
462 `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
463 include `/path/to/lib'.
465 ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
467 Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
470 ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
472 When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
473 version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
474 allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
475 installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
478 ** Interactive Guile follows GNU conventions
480 As recommended by the GPL, Guile now shows a brief copyright and
481 warranty disclaimer on startup, along with pointers to more information.
483 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
485 ** Support for R6RS libraries
487 The `library' and `import' forms from the latest Scheme report have been
488 added to Guile, in such a way that R6RS libraries share a namespace with
489 Guile modules. R6RS modules may import Guile modules, and are available
490 for Guile modules to import via use-modules and all the rest. See "R6RS
491 Libraries" in the manual for more information.
493 ** Implementations of R6RS libraries
495 Guile now has implementations for all of the libraries defined in the
496 R6RS. Thanks to Julian Graham for this excellent hack. See "R6RS
497 Standard Libraries" in the manual for a full list of libraries.
499 ** Partial R6RS compatibility
501 Guile now has enough support for R6RS to run a reasonably large subset
504 Guile is not fully R6RS compatible. Many incompatibilities are simply
505 bugs, though some parts of Guile will remain R6RS-incompatible for the
506 foreseeable future. See "R6RS Incompatibilities" in the manual, for more
509 Please contact bug-guile@gnu.org if you have found an issue not
510 mentioned in that compatibility list.
512 ** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
514 Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
515 still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
516 compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
517 primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
519 This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
520 to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
521 providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
522 code, and simplifying debugging.
524 As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
525 representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
527 There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
528 takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
529 information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
530 both of these situations.
532 There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
533 public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
534 we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
535 contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
537 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
539 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
540 not apply to the compiler.
542 ** No more `local-eval'
544 `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
545 lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
546 environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
547 and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
550 If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
551 own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
554 ** Scheme source files will now be compiled automatically.
556 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
557 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
558 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
560 Note that this mechanism depends on preservation of the .scm and .go
561 modification times; if the .scm or .go files are moved after
562 installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
565 Autocompiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
566 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
567 will be created if needed.
569 To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
570 variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line.
572 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
574 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
575 in the next prerelease.
577 ** New POSIX procedure: `getsid'
579 Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
581 ** New POSIX procedure: `getaddrinfo'
583 Scheme binding for the `getaddrinfo' C library function.
585 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
587 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
588 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
589 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments'
591 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
592 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
593 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
594 procedures' docstrings for more information.
596 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
597 combining arity and formals. For example:
599 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
600 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
602 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
605 ** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
607 These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are
608 no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you
609 probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will
610 probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway).
612 ** New language: ECMAScript
614 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
615 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
616 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
617 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
619 ** New language: Brainfuck
621 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
622 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
623 languages. See the manual for details, or
624 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
625 Brainfuck language itself.
627 ** New language: Elisp
629 Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can
630 now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel
631 Kraft, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
633 ** Better documentation infrastructure for macros
635 It is now possible to introspect on the type of a macro, e.g.
636 syntax-rules, identifier-syntax, etc, and extract information about that
637 macro, such as the syntax-rules patterns or the defmacro arguments.
638 `(texinfo reflection)' takes advantage of this to give better macro
641 ** Support for arbitrary procedure metadata
643 Building on its support for docstrings, Guile now supports multiple
644 docstrings, adding them to the tail of a compiled procedure's
645 properties. For example:
651 (procedure-properties foo)
652 => ((name . foo) (documentation . "one") (documentation . "two"))
654 Also, vectors of pairs are now treated as additional metadata entries:
657 #((quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
659 (procedure-properties bar)
660 => ((name . bar) (quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
662 This allows arbitrary literals to be embedded as metadata in a compiled
665 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
668 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
670 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
671 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
674 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
675 (define (helper x) ...)
677 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
679 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
682 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
683 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
685 ** Complete support for version information in Guile's `module' form
687 Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. They may be loaded by
688 version as well. See "R6RS Version References", "General Information
689 about Modules", "Using Guile Modules", and "Creating Guile Modules" in
690 the manual for more information.
692 ** Support for renaming bindings on module export
694 Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
695 export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
696 should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
697 for more information.
699 ** New procedure: `module-export-all!'
701 This procedure exports all current and future bindings from a module.
702 Use as `(module-export-all! (current-module))'.
704 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
706 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. See "Eval When"
707 in the manual, for more information.
709 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
712 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
713 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
715 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
717 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
719 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
721 It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g.
722 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate
723 feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the
724 default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0
725 in response to user feedback.
727 ** Macro expansion produces structures instead of s-expressions
729 In the olden days, macroexpanding an s-expression would yield another
730 s-expression. Though the lexical variables were renamed, expansions of
731 core forms like `if' and `begin' were still non-hygienic, as they relied
732 on the toplevel definitions of `if' et al being the conventional ones.
734 The solution is to expand to structures instead of s-expressions. There
735 is an `if' structure, a `begin' structure, a `toplevel-ref' structure,
736 etc. The expander already did this for compilation, producing Tree-IL
737 directly; it has been changed now to do so when expanding for the
740 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
742 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
743 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
746 (define (helper x) ...)
747 (define-macro (foo bar)
750 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
753 (define (helper x) ...)
754 (define-macro (foo bar)
755 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
757 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
761 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
763 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
765 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
772 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
773 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
776 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
778 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
782 (define-macro (ref x) x)
785 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
786 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
787 macros before code that uses them.
789 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
792 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
794 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
795 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
796 (double-literal 2) => 4
798 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
799 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
800 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
802 (eval-when (load compile eval)
803 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
804 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
805 (double-literal 2) => 4
807 See the documentation for eval-when for more information.
809 ** `macroexpand' produces structures, not S-expressions.
811 Given the need to maintain referential transparency, both lexically and
812 modular, the result of expanding Scheme expressions is no longer itself
813 an s-expression. If you want a human-readable approximation of the
814 result of `macroexpand', call `tree-il->scheme' from `(language
817 ** Removed function: `macroexpand-1'
819 It is unclear how to implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though
820 PLT Scheme does prove that it is possible.
822 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
824 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
825 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
826 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
828 ** Incompatible change to #'
830 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
831 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
832 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
833 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
835 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
837 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
840 ** Prompts: Delimited, composable continuations
842 Guile now has prompts as part of its primitive language. See "Prompts"
843 in the manual, for more information.
845 Expressions entered in at the REPL, or from the command line, are
846 surrounded by a prompt with the default prompt tag.
848 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
849 works (with compiled procedures)
851 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
852 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
853 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
854 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
856 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
857 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
858 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
859 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
860 number of stack frames.
862 ** Backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
863 active in the current continuation
865 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
866 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
867 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
868 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
870 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
871 through to the expanded code
873 This should result in better backtraces.
875 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
877 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
879 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
881 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
882 default. Use the `(ice-9 curried-definitions)' module to get back the
885 ** New procedure, `define!'
887 `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
888 and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
889 programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
890 less verbose than `module-define!'.
892 ** All modules have names now
894 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
895 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
896 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
897 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
899 ** The module namespace is now separate from the value namespace
901 It was a little-known implementation detail of Guile's module system
902 that it was built on a single hierarchical namespace of values -- that
903 if there was a module named `(foo bar)', then in the module named
904 `(foo)' there was a binding from `bar' to the `(foo bar)' module.
906 This was a neat trick, but presented a number of problems. One problem
907 was that the bindings in a module were not apparent from the module
908 itself; perhaps the `(foo)' module had a private binding for `bar', and
909 then an external contributor defined `(foo bar)'. In the end there can
910 be only one binding, so one of the two will see the wrong thing, and
911 produce an obtuse error of unclear provenance.
913 Also, the public interface of a module was also bound in the value
914 namespace, as `%module-public-interface'. This was a hack from the early
915 days of Guile's modules.
917 Both of these warts have been fixed by the addition of fields in the
918 `module' data type. Access to modules and their interfaces from the
919 value namespace has been deprecated, and all accessors use the new
920 record accessors appropriately.
922 When Guile is built with support for deprecated code, as is the default,
923 the value namespace is still searched for modules and public interfaces,
924 and a deprecation warning is raised as appropriate.
926 Finally, to support lazy loading of modules as one used to be able to do
927 with module binder procedures, Guile now has submodule binders, called
928 if a given submodule is not found. See boot-9.scm for more information.
930 ** New procedures: module-ref-submodule, module-define-submodule,
931 nested-ref-module, nested-define-module!, local-ref-module,
934 These new accessors are like their bare variants, but operate on
935 namespaces instead of values.
937 ** The (app modules) module tree is officially deprecated
939 It used to be that one could access a module named `(foo bar)' via
940 `(nested-ref the-root-module '(app modules foo bar))'. The `(app
941 modules)' bit was a never-used and never-documented abstraction, and has
942 been deprecated. See the following mail for a full discussion:
944 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2010-04/msg00168.html
946 The `%app' binding is also deprecated.
948 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
950 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
951 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
952 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
954 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
955 values to the expected number
957 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
958 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
959 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
961 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
962 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
963 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
964 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
966 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
967 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
968 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
970 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
973 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
975 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
977 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
978 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
979 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
980 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
981 the interpreter would proceed.
983 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
984 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
985 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
986 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
988 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
990 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
991 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
992 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
993 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
994 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
995 you to contact the Guile developers.
997 ** Hygienic macros documented as the primary syntactic extension mechanism.
999 The macro documentation was finally fleshed out with some documentation
1000 on `syntax-rules' and `syntax-case' macros, and other parts of the macro
1001 expansion process. See "Macros" in the manual, for details.
1003 ** psyntax is now the default expander
1005 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
1006 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
1009 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
1010 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
1011 code in question was memoized.
1013 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
1014 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
1015 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
1016 `x432' instead of `x'.
1018 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
1019 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
1020 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
1021 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
1023 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
1025 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
1026 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
1027 `macroexpand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
1030 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
1031 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
1032 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
1033 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
1035 ** Tail patterns in syntax-case
1037 Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
1038 syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
1039 are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
1040 match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
1043 (syntax-rules (else)
1044 ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
1047 Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
1048 tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
1049 patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
1051 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
1052 by nonhygienic macros.
1054 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
1055 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
1058 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
1059 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
1060 (define-macro (ref x)
1062 (bind-x 10 (ref x)))
1067 (define-syntax bind-x
1069 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
1070 (define-macro (ref x)
1072 (bind-x 10 (ref x)))
1074 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
1075 as code is ported over from defmacros to syntax-case, it is possible to
1076 run into situations like this. For example, if you have a defmacro that
1077 generates a `while' expression, the `break' bound by the `while' may not
1078 be visible within other parts of your defmacro. The solution is to port
1079 from defmacros to syntax-rules or syntax-case.
1081 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
1083 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
1084 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
1086 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
1087 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
1090 ** Macros may now have docstrings.
1092 `object-documentation' from `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to
1093 retrieve the docstring, once you have a macro value -- but see the above
1094 note about first-class macros. Docstrings are associated with the syntax
1095 transformer procedures.
1097 ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
1099 The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
1100 `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
1101 to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
1103 ** Procedures may now have more than one arity.
1105 This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
1106 arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
1107 `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
1108 Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
1110 ** Deprecate arity access via (procedure-properties proc 'arity)
1112 Instead of accessing a procedure's arity as a property, use the new
1113 `procedure-minimum-arity' function, which gives the most permissive
1114 arity that the the function has, in the same format as the old arity
1117 ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
1119 As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
1120 compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
1121 Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
1122 without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
1124 ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
1126 `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
1127 will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
1128 output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
1131 There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
1132 print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
1133 documentation for more details.
1135 ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
1137 Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
1138 have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
1139 or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
1140 else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
1141 APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
1142 addressed by element and not by byte.
1144 So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
1145 numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
1146 endianness, as one would expect.
1148 Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
1149 also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
1150 were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
1151 u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
1154 In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
1155 input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
1157 Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
1158 inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
1160 See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
1162 ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
1164 Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
1165 are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
1166 `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
1168 Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
1169 import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
1171 See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
1173 ** New syntax: include-from-path.
1175 `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
1176 the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
1178 ** New syntax: quasisyntax.
1180 `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
1181 documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
1184 ** Unicode characters
1186 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
1187 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
1188 probably be introduced at some point.
1192 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
1193 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
1194 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
1196 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
1197 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
1198 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
1199 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
1203 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
1205 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
1207 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
1208 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
1209 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
1210 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
1211 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
1214 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
1215 code. This use is now discouraged.
1217 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
1219 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
1220 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
1221 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
1224 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
1225 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
1226 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
1228 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
1230 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
1232 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
1233 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
1234 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
1235 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
1237 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
1239 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
1240 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
1241 Unicode code points.
1243 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
1245 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
1246 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
1247 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
1250 ** EBCDIC support is removed
1252 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
1253 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
1254 and was unmaintained.
1256 ** Compile-time warnings
1258 Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
1259 -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
1260 `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
1263 Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
1264 procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
1265 `#:warnings' as above.
1267 Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to
1268 warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables.
1270 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
1272 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
1275 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
1277 This slightly improves program startup times.
1279 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
1281 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
1283 ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
1285 As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
1286 special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
1287 associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
1288 underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
1290 This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
1291 dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
1292 implement method combinations.
1294 ** Applicable struct support
1296 One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
1297 To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
1298 That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
1299 that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
1300 `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
1301 `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
1302 `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
1303 the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
1307 GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
1308 but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
1309 never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
1310 were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
1311 replaced by applicable structs, mentioned above.
1313 ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
1315 A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
1316 call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
1317 instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
1318 vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
1320 ** eqv? not a generic
1322 One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
1323 more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
1324 should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
1325 sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
1327 ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
1329 Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
1330 there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
1331 functions are deprecated.
1333 ** Fast bit operations.
1335 The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
1336 have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
1337 it's for number crunching too.
1339 ** Faster SRFI-9 record access
1341 SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
1342 and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
1343 inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
1344 (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
1346 ** R6RS block comment support
1348 Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
1349 marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
1351 ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
1353 To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
1354 test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
1356 (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
1357 ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
1358 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1360 ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
1361 ;; separate compilation phase.
1362 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1364 ** Fix bad interaction between `false-if-exception' and stack-call.
1366 Exceptions thrown by `false-if-exception' were erronously causing the
1367 stack to be saved, causing later errors to show the incorrectly-saved
1368 backtrace. This has been fixed.
1370 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
1372 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
1374 ** New fluid: `%file-port-name-canonicalization'
1376 This fluid parameterizes the file names that are associated with file
1377 ports. If %file-port-name-canonicalization is 'absolute, then file names
1378 are canonicalized to be absolute paths. If it is 'relative, then the
1379 name is canonicalized, but any prefix corresponding to a member of
1380 `%load-path' is stripped off. Otherwise the names are passed through
1383 In addition, the `compile-file' and `compile-and-load' procedures bind
1384 %file-port-name-canonicalization to their `#:canonicalization' keyword
1385 argument, which defaults to 'relative. In this way, one might compile
1386 "../module/ice-9/boot-9.scm", but the path that gets residualized into
1387 the .go is "ice-9/boot-9.scm".
1389 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
1391 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
1393 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
1395 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
1397 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
1399 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
1401 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
1402 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
1403 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
1405 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
1407 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
1408 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
1410 ** New readline history functions
1412 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
1413 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
1414 History library functions.
1416 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
1417 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
1419 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
1422 ** Deprecated: `lazy-catch'
1424 `lazy-catch' was a form that captured the stack at the point of a
1425 `throw', but the dynamic state at the point of the `catch'. It was a bit
1426 crazy. Please change to use `catch', possibly with a throw-handler, or
1427 `with-throw-handler'.
1429 ** Deprecated `@bind' syntax
1431 `@bind' was part of an older implementation of the Emacs Lisp language,
1432 and is no longer used.
1434 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
1436 * Changes to the C interface
1438 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
1440 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
1441 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
1442 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
1444 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
1445 code easier and less error-prone.
1447 ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.
1449 `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
1450 `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
1451 available to C. Have fun!
1453 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
1455 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
1457 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
1460 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
1461 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
1463 ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
1465 From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
1466 odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
1467 SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
1470 ** Remove old evaluator closures
1472 There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
1473 structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
1474 procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
1475 newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
1478 ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
1480 It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
1481 allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
1482 Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
1483 defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
1484 solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
1485 both with the old 1.8 and and with the current 1.9 branch.
1487 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
1488 primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
1489 rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
1490 procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
1491 arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
1492 special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
1494 This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
1495 them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
1496 debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
1497 example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
1498 mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
1500 However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
1501 `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
1502 they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
1503 `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
1504 `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
1505 `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
1507 Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
1508 `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
1509 `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
1510 and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
1513 Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
1514 scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
1517 ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
1519 Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
1520 `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
1521 `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
1522 `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
1523 `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
1525 ** Remove unused snarf macros
1527 `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
1528 are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
1530 ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
1532 `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
1533 `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
1535 ** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
1537 Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
1538 they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
1540 ** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
1542 If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
1543 that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
1544 the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
1545 in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
1546 correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
1549 ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
1551 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
1552 objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
1553 trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
1554 trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
1557 The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
1558 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
1559 `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
1560 deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
1562 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
1564 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
1566 ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
1568 It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
1571 ** Inline vector allocation
1573 Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
1574 data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
1575 true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
1576 available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
1579 ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
1581 `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
1582 constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
1586 In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is
1587 no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has
1588 a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API
1589 considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is
1590 in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly.
1592 ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
1594 There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
1595 minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
1596 obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
1597 `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
1598 from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
1599 were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
1603 Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
1604 shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
1605 part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
1606 better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
1608 ** Deprecate trampolines
1610 There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
1611 so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
1612 procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
1613 optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
1614 Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
1616 ** Deprecated `scm_badargsp'
1618 This function is unused in Guile, but was part of its API.
1620 ** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
1622 The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
1623 efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
1624 Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
1625 like scm_is_null_or_nil.
1627 ** Better integration of Lisp `nil'.
1629 `scm_is_boolean', `scm_is_false', and `scm_is_null' all return true now
1630 for Lisp's `nil'. This shouldn't affect any Scheme code at this point,
1631 but when we start to integrate more with Emacs, it is possible that we
1632 break code that assumes that, for example, `(not x)' implies that `x' is
1633 `eq?' to `#f'. This is not a common assumption. Refactoring affected
1634 code to rely on properties instead of identities will improve code
1635 correctness. See "Nil" in the manual, for more details.
1637 ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
1639 Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
1640 much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
1643 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
1644 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
1646 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
1648 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
1649 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
1651 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
1653 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
1654 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
1655 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
1656 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
1658 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
1660 * Changes to the distribution
1662 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
1664 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
1665 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
1668 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
1670 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
1671 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
1673 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
1675 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
1676 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
1677 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
1680 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
1682 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
1683 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
1685 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
1687 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
1688 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
1690 ** Parallel installability fixes
1692 Guile now installs its header files to a effective-version-specific
1693 directory, and includes the effective version (e.g. 2.0) in the library
1694 name (e.g. libguile-2.0.so).
1696 This change should be transparent to users, who should detect Guile via
1697 the guile.m4 macro, or the guile-2.0.pc pkg-config file. It will allow
1698 parallel installs for multiple versions of Guile development
1701 ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
1703 Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
1704 (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
1705 be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
1706 directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensiondir
1707 guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
1709 ** New dependency: libgc
1711 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
1713 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
1715 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
1716 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
1718 ** New dependency: libffi
1720 See http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information.
1724 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
1728 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
1729 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
1730 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
1733 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
1735 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1737 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
1741 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
1742 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
1743 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
1744 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
1745 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
1746 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
1747 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
1748 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
1749 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
1750 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
1751 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
1753 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
1755 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
1756 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
1757 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
1760 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
1763 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
1765 * New features (see the manual for details)
1767 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
1769 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
1771 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
1772 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
1773 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
1775 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
1777 * Changes to the distribution
1779 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
1781 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
1782 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
1784 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
1786 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
1787 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
1792 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
1793 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
1794 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
1795 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
1796 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
1797 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
1798 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
1799 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
1800 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
1801 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
1802 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
1803 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
1804 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
1805 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
1807 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
1808 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
1809 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
1810 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
1811 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
1814 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
1816 * Infrastructure changes
1818 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
1820 The new repository can be accessed using
1821 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
1822 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
1824 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
1826 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
1828 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1832 * New features (see the manual for details)
1834 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
1835 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
1836 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
1838 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
1839 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
1840 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
1841 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
1843 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
1845 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
1846 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
1847 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
1851 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
1852 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
1854 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
1855 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
1857 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
1858 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
1860 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
1861 lead to a stack overflow.
1863 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
1864 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
1865 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
1866 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
1867 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
1868 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
1869 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
1870 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
1871 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
1872 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
1873 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
1874 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
1875 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
1876 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
1877 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
1878 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
1881 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
1885 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
1886 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
1887 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
1888 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
1889 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
1890 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
1891 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
1892 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
1893 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
1894 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
1895 system and library calls.
1896 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
1897 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
1898 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
1899 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
1900 uniform vectors on AIX.
1901 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
1902 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
1903 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
1904 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
1905 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
1907 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1911 * Documentation fixes and improvements
1913 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
1915 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
1916 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
1918 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
1920 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
1922 * Changes to the distribution
1924 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
1926 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
1927 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
1928 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
1930 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
1932 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
1935 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
1937 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1944 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
1945 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
1946 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
1947 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
1948 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
1949 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
1950 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
1952 * Implementation improvements
1954 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
1955 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
1958 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
1960 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1962 ** set-program-arguments
1965 * Incompatible changes
1967 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
1969 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
1970 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
1971 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
1972 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
1977 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
1978 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
1979 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
1980 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
1981 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
1982 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
1984 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
1985 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
1986 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
1987 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
1988 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
1989 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
1990 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
1991 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
1992 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
1993 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
1994 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
1995 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
1996 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
1997 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
1998 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
1999 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
2002 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
2004 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
2006 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
2008 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
2009 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
2010 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
2011 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
2012 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
2013 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
2021 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
2023 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
2025 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
2027 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
2029 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
2031 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
2033 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
2034 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
2035 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
2037 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
2039 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
2041 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
2042 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
2044 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
2046 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
2047 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
2049 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
2051 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
2053 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
2055 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
2057 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
2059 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
2061 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
2063 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
2065 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
2067 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
2068 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
2069 file was on a different device.
2072 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
2074 * Changes to the distribution
2076 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
2078 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
2080 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
2082 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
2084 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
2086 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
2089 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
2091 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
2092 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
2093 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
2094 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
2095 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
2096 items like the versioned share directory name
2097 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
2099 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
2100 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
2101 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
2102 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
2103 with each micro release during a stable series.
2105 ** Thread implementation has changed.
2107 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
2108 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
2109 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
2110 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
2111 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
2114 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
2115 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
2116 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
2117 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
2120 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
2121 in which case "null" threads are used.
2123 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
2124 "Blocking", and others.
2126 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
2128 This is a milder form of deprecation.
2130 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
2131 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
2132 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
2133 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
2134 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
2136 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
2137 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
2139 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
2141 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
2142 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
2144 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
2147 This SRFI is always available.
2149 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
2151 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
2152 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
2153 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
2154 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
2157 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
2159 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
2160 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
2161 parameters without currying.
2163 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
2165 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
2166 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
2168 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
2169 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
2172 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
2173 with a renaming import, for example.
2175 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
2177 The official version is good enough now.
2179 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
2181 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
2182 provided. Use 'make html'.
2184 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
2186 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
2187 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
2188 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
2189 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
2191 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
2193 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
2196 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2198 ** New command line option `-L'.
2200 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
2202 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
2204 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
2205 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
2207 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
2209 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
2210 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
2212 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
2214 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
2215 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
2218 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
2221 (define-module (demo)
2225 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
2228 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2230 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
2232 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
2233 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
2234 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
2236 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
2238 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
2239 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
2241 ** New function hashx-remove!
2243 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
2245 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
2246 barriers and dynamic states.
2248 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
2249 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
2250 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
2253 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
2254 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
2255 Barriers" in the manual.
2257 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
2258 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
2260 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
2262 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
2263 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
2264 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
2265 variable %load-path.
2267 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
2269 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
2270 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
2272 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
2273 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
2274 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
2276 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
2277 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
2279 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
2280 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
2281 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
2283 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
2284 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
2285 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
2288 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
2289 substrings and read-only strings.
2291 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
2292 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
2295 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
2297 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
2306 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
2307 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
2308 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
2310 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
2311 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
2312 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
2313 on an ANSI terminal:
2315 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
2316 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
2319 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
2321 See the manual for details.
2323 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
2325 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
2328 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
2330 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
2331 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
2332 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
2333 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
2335 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
2336 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
2337 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
2340 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
2342 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
2343 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
2354 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
2358 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
2363 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
2367 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
2371 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
2374 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
2375 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
2376 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
2377 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
2379 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
2380 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
2383 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
2386 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
2390 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
2392 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
2393 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
2394 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
2397 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
2400 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
2402 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
2405 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
2406 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
2409 (define-module (foo)
2414 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
2415 has been detected is to
2417 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
2418 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
2419 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
2422 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
2425 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
2427 to your .guile init file.
2429 ** New define-module option: :replace
2431 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
2434 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
2435 for the core binding `format'.
2437 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
2439 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
2440 a prefix to all imported bindings.
2442 (define-module (foo)
2443 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
2445 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
2448 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
2450 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
2451 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
2452 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
2454 ** New function: effective-version
2456 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2457 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2458 to the distribution" above.
2460 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
2462 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
2463 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
2465 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
2467 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
2468 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
2470 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
2472 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
2473 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
2476 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
2478 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
2480 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
2482 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
2483 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
2484 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
2487 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
2488 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
2489 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
2490 'system-async-mark'.
2492 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
2493 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
2495 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
2496 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
2497 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
2500 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
2502 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
2503 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
2506 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
2507 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2509 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
2510 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
2511 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
2512 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
2513 level for the current thread.
2515 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
2517 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
2519 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2520 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
2523 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
2525 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
2527 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
2530 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
2532 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
2535 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
2536 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
2537 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
2539 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
2540 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
2541 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
2542 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
2553 ERROR: Numerical overflow
2555 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
2558 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
2560 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
2561 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
2562 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
2573 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
2575 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
2576 them is also done exactly, of course:
2581 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
2582 for exact arguments.
2584 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
2585 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
2587 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
2589 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
2590 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
2591 equal to a floating point number. For example:
2593 (inexact->exact 1.234)
2594 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
2596 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
2598 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
2601 ** New function 'rationalize'.
2603 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
2604 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
2606 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
2609 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
2610 result when both its arguments are exact.
2612 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
2614 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
2615 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
2616 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
2618 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
2620 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
2621 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
2622 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
2624 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
2627 ** pretty-print has more options.
2629 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
2630 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
2631 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
2633 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
2635 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
2636 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
2637 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
2639 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
2641 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
2642 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
2644 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
2646 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
2647 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
2650 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
2652 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
2653 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
2654 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
2655 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
2656 without the soft port blocking.
2658 ** Deprecated: undefine
2660 There is no replacement for undefine.
2662 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
2663 have been discouraged.
2665 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
2666 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
2667 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
2670 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
2672 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
2674 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
2675 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
2676 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
2677 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
2680 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
2681 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
2682 be removed in the next major Guile release.
2684 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
2686 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
2687 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
2688 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
2689 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
2690 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
2691 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
2693 * Changes to the C interface
2695 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
2696 take a 'delete' function argument.
2698 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
2699 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
2701 This is an incompatible change.
2703 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
2705 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
2706 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
2707 --disable-deprecated.
2709 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
2711 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
2712 Scheme values has been added.
2714 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
2715 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
2718 - int scm_is_* (...)
2720 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
2721 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
2723 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
2725 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
2726 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
2729 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
2731 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
2732 scm_from_int for ints.
2734 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
2735 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
2736 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
2738 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
2740 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
2741 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
2742 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
2745 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
2747 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
2749 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
2751 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
2752 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
2753 following alternatives.
2755 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
2756 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
2757 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
2758 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
2760 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
2761 do the validating for you.
2763 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
2764 have been discouraged.
2766 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
2767 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
2770 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
2772 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
2773 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
2776 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
2778 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
2781 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
2784 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
2786 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
2787 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
2789 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
2790 scm_truncate_number should have.
2792 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
2793 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
2795 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
2798 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
2799 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
2800 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
2802 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
2803 easier to use from C.
2805 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
2806 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
2808 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
2809 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
2810 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
2813 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
2814 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
2815 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
2816 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
2819 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
2820 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
2821 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
2822 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
2823 and is thus quite efficient.
2825 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
2827 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
2828 about the character encoding.
2830 Replace according to the following table:
2832 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
2833 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
2834 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
2835 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
2836 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
2837 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
2838 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
2839 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
2840 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
2842 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
2843 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
2845 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
2847 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
2848 now also available to C code.
2850 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
2852 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
2853 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
2854 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
2856 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
2859 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
2861 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
2862 unceremoniously removed.
2864 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
2865 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
2866 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
2868 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
2869 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
2870 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2871 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2872 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
2873 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
2876 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
2878 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
2879 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
2880 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
2881 manual for more details.
2883 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2884 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2886 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
2887 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
2888 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2890 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
2892 Migrate according to the following table:
2894 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
2895 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
2896 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
2897 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
2898 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
2899 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
2900 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
2902 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
2903 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
2904 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
2905 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
2906 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
2907 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
2908 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
2910 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
2912 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
2913 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
2915 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
2916 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
2917 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
2918 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
2920 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
2922 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
2923 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
2924 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
2926 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
2927 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
2929 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
2930 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
2931 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
2932 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
2934 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
2936 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
2937 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
2938 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
2939 prevent a potential memory leak:
2946 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
2948 mem = scm_malloc (100);
2949 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
2951 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
2952 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
2959 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
2960 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
2964 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
2966 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
2968 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
2969 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
2970 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
2972 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2973 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
2975 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
2977 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
2979 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
2980 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
2981 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
2983 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
2984 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
2986 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
2987 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
2988 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
2989 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
2992 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
2994 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
2995 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2996 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
2998 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
3000 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
3001 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
3003 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
3005 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
3006 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
3008 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
3010 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
3011 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
3012 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
3014 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
3016 You should not have used them.
3018 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
3020 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
3021 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
3023 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
3025 This macro is not intended for public use.
3027 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
3029 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
3031 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
3033 Use scm_is_real instead.
3035 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
3037 Use scm_is_complex instead.
3039 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
3041 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
3042 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
3044 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
3045 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
3047 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
3048 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
3050 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
3052 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
3055 ** New function: scm_effective_version
3057 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
3058 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
3059 to the distribution" above.
3061 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
3063 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
3064 arguments are now passed directly:
3066 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
3068 This is an incompatible change.
3070 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
3072 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
3073 function in the init section.
3075 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
3077 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
3079 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
3080 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
3081 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
3082 stays roughly constant.
3084 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
3085 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
3086 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
3087 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
3088 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
3091 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
3092 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
3093 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
3094 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
3096 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
3097 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
3098 objects for every type.
3101 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
3103 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
3105 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
3107 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
3108 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
3109 initializes a new cell (see below).
3111 ** New functions for memory management
3113 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
3114 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
3115 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
3116 cause aborts in long running programs.
3118 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
3119 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
3121 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
3122 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
3123 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
3124 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
3125 details and for upgrading instructions.
3127 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
3128 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
3129 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
3131 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
3133 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
3134 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
3135 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
3136 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
3137 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
3139 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
3140 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
3141 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
3143 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
3144 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
3146 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
3148 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
3149 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
3150 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
3151 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
3152 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
3154 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
3156 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
3159 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
3161 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
3163 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
3165 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
3166 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
3168 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
3170 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
3171 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
3173 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
3174 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
3176 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
3178 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
3180 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
3181 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
3182 blocking it is not well defined.
3184 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
3186 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
3187 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
3188 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
3189 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
3190 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
3191 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
3192 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
3193 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
3194 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
3195 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
3196 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3197 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
3198 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
3199 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
3200 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
3201 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
3202 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
3203 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3204 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
3205 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
3206 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
3207 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
3208 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
3209 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
3210 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
3211 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
3212 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
3213 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
3214 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
3215 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
3216 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
3218 * Changes to bundled modules
3222 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
3223 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
3224 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
3225 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
3226 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
3229 Changes since Guile 1.4:
3231 * Changes to the distribution
3233 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
3235 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
3237 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
3238 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
3239 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
3240 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
3241 indicate major changes in Guile.
3243 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
3244 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
3245 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
3246 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
3248 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
3249 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
3250 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
3251 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
3252 micro version number.
3254 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
3256 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
3258 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
3259 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
3261 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
3263 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
3264 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
3265 See INSTALL and README for more information.
3267 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
3269 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
3270 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
3271 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
3274 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
3276 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
3279 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
3281 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
3282 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
3284 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
3286 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
3287 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
3290 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
3292 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
3295 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
3298 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
3300 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
3302 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
3303 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
3304 open-output-string, get-output-string.
3306 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
3308 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
3310 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
3313 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
3315 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
3317 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
3319 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
3320 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
3321 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
3323 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
3325 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
3327 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
3328 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
3337 See README there for more info.
3339 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
3340 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
3343 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
3345 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
3347 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
3349 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
3350 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
3351 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
3353 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
3355 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
3356 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
3357 to be named `and-let*', of course.
3359 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
3360 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
3362 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
3365 (oop goops describe)
3367 (oop goops active-slot)
3368 (oop goops composite-slot)
3370 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
3371 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
3372 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
3374 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
3376 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
3377 in the default environment:
3379 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
3380 %read-line write-line
3382 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
3383 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
3385 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
3387 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
3390 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
3391 can be used for similar functionality.
3393 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
3395 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
3396 it defines two procedures:
3398 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3400 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
3401 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3402 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
3405 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3407 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
3408 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3409 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
3410 write large strings.
3412 ** New module (ice-9 match)
3414 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
3415 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
3417 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
3419 for complete documentation.
3421 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
3423 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
3424 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
3425 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
3426 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
3428 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
3429 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
3433 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
3434 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
3435 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
3438 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
3441 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
3442 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
3444 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
3445 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
3448 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
3451 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
3453 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
3455 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3457 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
3459 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
3460 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
3461 Scheme programs easier.
3463 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
3464 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
3465 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
3466 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
3467 `cond-expand' when using this option.
3470 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
3471 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
3473 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
3476 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
3478 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
3479 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
3480 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
3483 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3485 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
3487 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
3488 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
3489 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
3490 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
3491 was also ASCII, for example.
3493 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
3495 tag - no replacement.
3496 fseek - replaced by seek.
3497 list* - replaced by cons*.
3499 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
3503 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
3504 (define m (make-safe-module))
3505 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
3506 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
3507 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
3509 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
3511 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
3512 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
3513 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
3515 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
3517 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
3518 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
3519 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
3520 from the issues related to the module system.
3522 *** New function: load-extension
3524 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
3526 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
3528 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
3529 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
3530 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
3532 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
3534 This function registers a initialization function for use by
3535 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
3536 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
3537 support dynamic linking).
3539 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
3541 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
3542 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
3543 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
3544 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
3547 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
3548 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
3549 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
3550 library and initialize it explicitly.
3552 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
3553 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
3555 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
3557 (define-module (foo bar))
3559 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
3561 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
3563 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
3564 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
3566 (scheme-report-environment 5)
3567 (null-environment 5)
3568 (interaction-environment)
3574 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
3576 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
3577 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
3578 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
3579 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
3581 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
3582 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
3583 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
3584 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
3585 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
3586 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
3587 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
3588 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
3589 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
3590 one eval to the next.
3592 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
3593 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
3594 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
3595 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
3596 subforms are at the top-level as well.
3598 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
3599 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
3600 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
3601 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
3602 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
3603 used in a lexical environment.
3605 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
3606 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
3607 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
3608 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
3609 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
3610 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
3612 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
3614 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
3615 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
3616 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
3617 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
3618 new facilities: selection and renaming.
3620 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
3621 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
3622 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
3624 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
3625 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
3627 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
3628 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
3629 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3631 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3632 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
3634 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
3635 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
3636 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
3637 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
3640 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3641 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
3642 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
3643 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3645 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3646 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3647 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
3649 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3650 ;; and all four by upcasing.
3651 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
3652 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
3653 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
3655 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3657 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3658 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3659 :renamer upcase-symbol))
3661 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
3662 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
3663 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
3665 See manual for more info.
3667 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
3669 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
3670 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
3671 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
3673 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
3675 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
3676 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
3677 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
3679 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
3680 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
3681 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
3682 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
3684 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
3686 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
3687 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
3689 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
3690 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
3691 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
3692 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
3693 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
3696 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
3697 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
3698 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
3699 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
3700 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
3701 successful and #f if it wasn't.
3703 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
3704 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
3705 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
3706 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
3707 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
3709 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
3710 objects are usually permanent.
3712 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
3713 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
3715 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
3717 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
3718 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
3721 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
3725 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
3730 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
3732 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
3733 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
3734 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
3735 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
3737 ** New function `make-object-property'
3739 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
3740 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
3744 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
3745 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
3749 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
3750 source properties eventually.
3752 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
3754 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
3755 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
3756 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
3758 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
3759 will be removed in the next release.
3761 ** New define-module option: pure
3763 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
3768 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
3771 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
3773 Export names NAME1 ...
3775 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
3776 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
3780 (define-module (foo)
3782 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
3785 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
3790 ** New function: object->string OBJ
3792 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
3794 ** New function: port? X
3796 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
3797 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
3799 ** New function: file-port?
3801 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
3803 ** New function: port-for-each proc
3805 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
3806 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
3807 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
3808 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
3809 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
3811 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
3813 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
3814 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
3815 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
3816 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
3817 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
3820 ** New function: close-fdes fd
3822 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
3823 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
3824 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
3825 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
3828 ** New function: crypt password salt
3830 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
3833 ** New function: chroot path
3835 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
3837 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
3839 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
3842 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
3844 Get or set the priority of the running process.
3846 ** New function: getpass prompt
3848 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
3851 ** New function: flock file operation
3853 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
3855 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
3857 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
3860 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
3862 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
3863 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
3864 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
3865 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
3866 of the temporary file.
3868 ** New function: open-input-string string
3870 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
3871 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
3872 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
3874 ** New function: open-output-string
3876 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
3877 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
3879 ** New function: get-output-string
3881 Return the contents of an output string port.
3883 ** New function: identity
3885 Return the argument.
3887 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
3888 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
3890 ** New function: inet-pton family address
3892 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
3893 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
3894 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3897 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
3898 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
3900 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
3902 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
3903 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
3904 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3907 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
3908 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
3909 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
3913 Use `identity' instead.
3919 ** Deprecated: return-it
3923 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
3925 Use `string-length' instead.
3927 ** Deprecated: flags
3929 Use `logior' instead.
3931 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
3933 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
3934 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
3935 port-for-each is more flexible.
3937 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
3938 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
3939 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
3941 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
3943 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
3945 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
3947 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
3949 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
3951 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
3952 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
3954 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
3955 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
3957 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
3958 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
3960 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
3962 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
3963 Removed function: builtin-bindings
3965 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
3966 Use module system operations for all variables.
3968 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
3970 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
3973 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
3975 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
3976 The following bugs have been fixed:
3978 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
3979 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
3982 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
3983 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
3984 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
3986 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
3987 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
3989 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
3990 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
3993 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
3994 The expansion used to be like so:
3996 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
3998 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
4000 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
4002 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
4003 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
4005 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
4007 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
4008 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
4009 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
4013 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
4014 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
4016 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
4021 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
4022 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
4024 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
4025 and `d', other keywords allowed.
4026 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
4028 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
4031 * Changes to the C interface
4033 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
4035 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
4036 with "_t". What a concept.
4038 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
4040 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
4042 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
4046 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
4047 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
4049 *** C Functions removed
4051 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
4052 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
4053 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
4054 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
4055 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
4056 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
4057 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
4059 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
4061 Use scm_mem2string instead.
4063 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
4065 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
4067 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
4068 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
4070 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
4072 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
4075 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
4077 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
4079 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
4081 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
4082 Evaluation" in the manual.
4084 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
4086 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
4087 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
4089 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
4091 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
4092 Constructors" in the manual.
4094 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
4096 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
4097 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
4099 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
4101 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
4103 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
4104 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
4105 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
4107 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4109 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
4111 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
4112 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
4113 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
4116 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4118 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
4120 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
4121 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
4123 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
4125 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
4126 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
4127 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
4128 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
4130 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
4131 scm_primitive_property_ref
4132 scm_primitive_property_set_x
4133 scm_primitive_property_del_x
4135 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
4136 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
4138 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
4140 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
4141 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
4142 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
4143 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
4145 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
4147 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
4148 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
4149 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
4150 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
4151 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
4152 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
4153 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
4155 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
4156 scm_remember_upto_here
4158 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
4160 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
4162 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
4163 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
4165 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
4167 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
4169 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
4171 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
4173 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
4175 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
4176 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
4177 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
4178 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
4179 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
4180 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
4182 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
4184 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4186 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
4187 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4188 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
4190 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
4192 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
4193 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4194 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
4196 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
4198 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
4199 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
4202 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
4205 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
4206 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
4209 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4211 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
4213 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
4215 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4217 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
4219 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
4221 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
4222 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
4223 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
4224 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
4225 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
4226 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
4227 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
4228 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
4229 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
4230 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
4231 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
4232 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
4233 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
4234 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
4235 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
4237 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
4238 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
4239 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
4240 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
4241 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
4242 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
4243 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
4244 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
4245 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4246 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
4247 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
4248 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
4249 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
4250 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
4251 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
4252 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4253 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4254 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
4255 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
4256 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
4257 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
4258 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
4259 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
4260 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
4261 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
4262 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
4263 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
4264 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
4265 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
4267 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
4269 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
4271 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
4272 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
4274 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
4276 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
4278 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
4280 Use scm_string_hash instead.
4282 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
4284 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
4286 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
4288 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
4290 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
4293 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
4294 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
4296 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
4298 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
4300 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
4302 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
4304 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
4306 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
4308 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
4310 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
4313 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
4315 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
4317 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
4319 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
4320 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
4322 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
4323 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
4325 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
4327 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
4328 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
4329 scm_module_define, scm_define.
4331 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
4333 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
4335 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
4336 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
4338 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
4339 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
4340 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
4341 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
4343 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
4344 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
4345 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
4347 Use the new ones from above instead.
4349 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
4351 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
4352 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
4353 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
4355 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
4356 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
4358 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
4359 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
4362 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
4363 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
4365 Use the new functions instead.
4367 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
4370 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
4372 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
4374 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
4377 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
4379 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
4382 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
4384 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
4387 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
4388 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
4389 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
4391 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
4393 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
4394 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
4396 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
4397 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
4398 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
4399 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
4402 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
4404 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
4405 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
4406 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
4407 inexact for an exact.
4409 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
4410 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
4411 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
4414 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
4415 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
4416 accept an inexact argument.
4418 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
4419 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
4421 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
4424 ** New number validation macros:
4425 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
4429 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
4431 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
4432 scm_unprotect_object.
4434 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
4436 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
4438 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
4441 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
4443 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
4447 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
4449 * Changes to the distribution
4451 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
4453 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
4454 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
4455 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
4456 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
4457 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
4458 obtain these programs.
4459 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
4460 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
4462 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
4463 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
4464 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
4465 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
4466 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
4468 However, this approach means that minor differences between
4469 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
4470 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
4471 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
4475 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
4478 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
4479 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
4480 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
4481 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
4483 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
4485 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
4487 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
4488 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
4490 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
4491 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
4493 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
4494 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
4496 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
4497 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
4498 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
4499 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
4501 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
4503 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
4507 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
4508 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
4510 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
4512 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
4513 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
4515 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
4516 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
4517 number of objects of that kind.
4519 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
4521 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
4522 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
4523 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
4524 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
4525 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
4527 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
4529 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
4531 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
4533 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
4536 ** New module (ice-9 time)
4538 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
4540 ** New module (ice-9 history)
4542 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
4544 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4546 ** New command line option --debug
4548 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
4550 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
4552 ** New help facility
4554 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
4555 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
4556 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
4557 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
4558 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
4559 (help) gives this text
4561 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
4562 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
4564 Examples: (help help)
4566 (help "output-string")
4568 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
4570 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
4572 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
4573 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
4576 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
4577 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
4578 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
4581 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
4582 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
4583 use absolute filenames when possible.
4585 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
4586 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
4587 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
4590 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
4592 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
4593 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
4594 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
4595 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
4597 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
4599 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
4601 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
4602 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
4603 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
4605 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
4606 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
4607 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
4609 (read-enable 'positions)
4610 (debug-enable 'debug)
4612 ** Backtraces in scripts
4614 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
4618 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
4620 at the top of the script.
4622 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
4623 The second enables backtraces.)
4625 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
4627 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
4628 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
4629 substantially faster than before.
4631 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
4632 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
4634 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
4635 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
4637 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
4639 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
4640 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
4641 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
4643 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
4644 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
4645 when this hook is run in the future.
4647 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
4648 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
4650 ** Improvements to garbage collector
4652 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
4653 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
4656 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
4657 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
4658 more and more memory for certain programs.)
4660 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
4661 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
4663 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
4664 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
4666 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
4667 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
4668 in order not to need further allocation.)
4670 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
4673 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
4674 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
4675 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
4676 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
4678 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
4680 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
4683 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
4685 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
4688 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
4689 GC in percent of total heap size
4692 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
4693 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
4695 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
4697 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
4698 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
4700 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
4702 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
4703 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
4705 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
4707 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
4708 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
4712 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
4713 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
4715 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
4717 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4719 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
4721 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
4723 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
4725 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
4726 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
4728 (simple-format port message . args)
4729 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
4730 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
4731 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
4732 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
4733 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
4734 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
4735 Does not add a trailing newline."
4737 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
4739 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
4740 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
4742 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
4743 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
4745 ** Deprecated: list*
4747 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
4749 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
4751 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
4752 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
4754 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
4755 is returned as result.
4757 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
4759 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
4761 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
4763 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
4764 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
4767 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
4769 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
4771 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
4772 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
4774 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4776 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
4778 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
4780 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4782 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
4784 Thanks to Greg Badros!
4786 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4788 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4789 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
4790 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
4792 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
4795 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
4797 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
4798 the readability of argument checking.
4800 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
4802 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
4804 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
4806 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
4807 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
4808 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
4809 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
4810 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
4811 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
4812 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
4814 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
4816 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
4818 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
4819 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
4821 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
4823 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
4824 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
4827 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
4829 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
4830 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
4831 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
4833 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
4834 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
4835 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
4837 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
4838 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
4839 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
4840 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
4841 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
4842 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
4843 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
4845 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
4846 scm_end_input (object);
4847 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
4848 ptob->flush (object);
4850 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
4851 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
4854 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
4856 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
4858 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
4859 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
4860 removed in a future version.
4862 ** The format of error message strings has changed
4864 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
4865 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
4866 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
4867 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
4869 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
4870 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
4872 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
4875 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
4877 in your configure.in.
4879 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
4884 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
4890 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
4892 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
4896 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
4897 (define make-message string-append)
4899 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
4901 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
4905 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
4910 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
4914 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
4916 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
4917 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
4919 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
4921 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
4922 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
4923 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
4924 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
4925 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
4926 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
4928 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
4929 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
4930 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
4932 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
4933 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
4934 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
4937 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
4938 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
4939 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
4940 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
4941 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
4943 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
4944 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
4945 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
4946 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
4947 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
4948 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
4949 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
4951 Destructors are not yet implemented.
4953 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
4954 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
4955 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
4957 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
4958 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
4959 KEY in the calling thread.
4961 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
4962 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
4963 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
4964 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
4965 associated with the key.
4967 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
4969 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
4970 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
4972 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
4974 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
4975 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
4976 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
4978 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
4980 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
4981 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
4983 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
4985 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
4987 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
4988 returned is undefined.
4990 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
4991 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
4992 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
4994 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
4995 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
4996 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
4998 ** New C level GC hooks
5000 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
5002 scm_before_gc_c_hook
5005 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
5006 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
5007 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
5009 scm_before_mark_c_hook
5010 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
5011 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
5013 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
5014 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
5017 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
5019 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
5020 allocation parameters
5022 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
5023 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
5024 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
5028 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
5029 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
5030 scm_default_max_segment_size
5032 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
5034 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
5035 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
5037 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
5039 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
5040 object and count on the object being protected until
5041 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
5043 The functions also have better time complexity.
5045 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
5046 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
5047 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
5048 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
5049 are no longer needed.
5051 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
5053 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
5054 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
5055 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
5056 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
5058 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
5060 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
5062 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
5064 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
5065 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
5066 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
5067 until this issue has been settled.
5069 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
5071 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
5073 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
5076 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
5078 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5080 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
5081 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
5082 descriptors were checked.
5084 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
5085 atomically written to a pipe.
5087 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
5088 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
5089 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
5090 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
5091 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
5092 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
5093 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
5096 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
5097 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
5098 is changed without calling tzset.
5100 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
5102 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
5103 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
5104 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
5106 (define write-network-long
5107 (lambda (value port)
5108 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5109 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
5110 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
5112 (define read-network-long
5114 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5115 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
5116 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
5118 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
5119 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
5121 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
5122 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
5123 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
5124 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
5126 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
5127 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
5128 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
5129 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
5133 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
5135 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5139 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
5140 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
5141 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
5147 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
5148 for a description of available commands.
5150 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
5151 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
5152 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
5154 (debug-enable 'backwards)
5156 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
5157 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
5159 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
5161 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
5163 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
5164 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
5165 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
5166 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
5167 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
5168 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
5171 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
5173 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
5174 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
5175 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
5176 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
5178 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
5179 the file and should not be affected by this change.
5181 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
5183 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5185 ** Readline support has changed again.
5187 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
5188 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
5189 to activate readline is now
5191 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
5194 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
5196 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
5197 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
5198 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
5201 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
5202 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
5203 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
5206 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
5207 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
5208 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
5209 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
5210 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
5211 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
5213 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
5214 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
5216 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
5218 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
5219 object it receives is the same string passed to
5220 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
5221 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
5222 string, not the suffix.
5224 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
5225 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
5226 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
5228 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
5230 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
5231 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
5232 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
5233 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
5236 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5238 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
5240 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
5241 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
5242 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
5243 appear from left to right.
5245 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
5248 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
5250 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
5251 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
5253 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5257 *** New function: hook? OBJ
5259 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
5261 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
5263 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
5264 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
5265 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
5267 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
5269 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
5271 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
5273 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
5276 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
5278 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
5279 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
5280 mentioning it here anyway.
5282 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
5284 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
5285 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
5286 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
5287 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
5290 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
5292 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
5294 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
5296 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
5297 otherwise return #f.
5299 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
5301 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
5302 returned by `opendir'.
5304 ** New function: using-readline?
5306 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
5308 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5310 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
5311 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5313 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5315 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5317 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
5318 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
5319 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5321 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
5323 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
5324 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
5326 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
5328 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
5329 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
5330 documentation slots are not yet used.
5332 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
5334 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
5335 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
5336 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
5341 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
5342 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
5343 (string-append x y))
5345 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
5346 can also be used for concatenating strings.
5348 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
5349 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
5350 be made in a clean way.]
5352 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
5354 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5356 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5358 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
5359 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
5361 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5363 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
5365 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5367 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5369 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
5370 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
5371 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
5372 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
5375 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5377 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
5379 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5381 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5383 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
5384 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
5386 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5388 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
5390 Evaluates the body of a special form.
5392 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
5394 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
5395 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
5396 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
5397 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
5398 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
5399 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
5401 This should not make any difference for most users.
5403 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
5405 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
5406 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
5408 *** New functions for applying generic functions
5410 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
5411 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
5412 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
5413 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
5414 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
5416 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
5418 It is now replaced by:
5420 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
5422 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
5423 binds a variable named NAME to it.
5425 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
5427 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
5428 This might change when we get the new module system.
5430 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
5434 Changes since Guile 1.3:
5436 * Changes to mailing lists
5438 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
5440 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
5443 * Changes to the distribution
5445 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
5447 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
5448 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
5449 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
5450 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
5451 you explicitly specify it.
5453 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
5454 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
5455 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
5456 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
5457 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
5460 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
5461 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
5462 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
5463 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
5465 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
5466 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
5467 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
5470 You can activate the readline support by issuing
5472 (use-modules (readline-activator))
5475 from your ".guile" file, for example.
5477 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5479 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
5480 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
5481 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
5482 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
5484 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
5485 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
5488 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5490 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
5491 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
5492 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
5493 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
5494 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
5495 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
5496 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
5497 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
5509 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
5510 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
5511 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
5512 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
5513 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
5518 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
5519 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
5527 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
5532 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
5533 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
5536 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
5537 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
5538 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
5539 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
5541 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
5543 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
5545 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
5546 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
5548 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
5550 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
5552 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
5553 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
5555 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
5558 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
5560 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
5562 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
5564 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
5566 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
5568 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
5570 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
5571 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
5572 when the hook was created.
5574 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
5575 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
5576 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
5577 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
5578 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
5579 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
5580 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
5581 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
5582 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
5584 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
5585 the dlopen family of functions.
5587 ** New function `provided?'
5589 - Function: provided? FEATURE
5590 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
5591 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
5592 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
5594 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
5596 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
5597 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
5598 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
5599 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5602 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5603 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
5604 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
5605 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
5607 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
5608 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
5609 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
5612 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
5613 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
5614 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
5615 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
5616 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
5617 but with the flag set.
5619 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
5621 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
5622 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
5624 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
5625 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
5626 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
5627 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
5628 available Scheme format implementations.
5630 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
5631 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
5632 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
5633 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
5634 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
5635 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
5636 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
5637 output is to the current error port if available by the
5638 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
5641 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
5642 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
5643 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
5644 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
5645 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
5646 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
5647 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
5648 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
5650 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
5651 be executed at a time.
5654 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
5656 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
5657 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
5658 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
5660 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
5661 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
5662 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
5663 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
5664 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
5665 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
5666 general form of a directive is:
5668 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
5670 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
5672 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5674 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
5675 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
5676 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
5679 Any (print as `display' does).
5683 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
5687 S-expression (print as `write' does).
5691 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
5697 print number sign always.
5700 print comma separated.
5702 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
5708 print number sign always.
5711 print comma separated.
5713 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
5719 print number sign always.
5722 print comma separated.
5724 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
5730 print number sign always.
5733 print comma separated.
5735 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
5740 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
5744 print a number as a Roman numeral.
5747 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
5750 print a number as an ordinal English number.
5753 print a number as a cardinal English number.
5758 prints `y' and `ies'.
5761 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5764 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5769 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
5773 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
5776 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
5777 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
5779 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5782 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
5783 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
5785 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5788 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
5790 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
5792 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5795 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
5797 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
5799 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5802 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
5805 The sign appears before the padding.
5813 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
5815 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
5820 print N page separators.
5830 newline is ignored, white space left.
5833 newline is left, white space ignored.
5838 relative tabulation.
5844 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
5846 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
5849 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
5851 converts by `string-capitalize'.
5854 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
5857 converts by `string-upcase'.
5860 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
5862 jumps N arguments forward.
5865 jumps 1 argument backward.
5868 jumps N arguments backward.
5871 jumps to the 0th argument.
5874 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
5876 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
5877 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
5879 take argument from N.
5882 true test conditional.
5885 if-else-then conditional.
5891 default clause follows.
5894 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
5896 at most N iterations.
5899 args from next arg (a list of lists).
5902 args from the rest of arguments.
5905 args from the rest args (lists).
5916 aborts if N <= M <= K
5918 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5921 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5924 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5930 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
5932 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
5934 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
5935 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
5936 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
5937 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
5938 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
5939 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
5943 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
5947 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
5953 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
5956 Print a `#\space' character
5958 print N `#\space' characters.
5961 Print a `#\tab' character
5963 print N `#\tab' characters.
5966 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
5967 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
5968 must be a positive decimal number.
5971 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5972 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5973 be processed by `read'.
5976 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5977 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5978 be processed by `read'.
5981 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
5984 prints format version.
5987 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
5988 and format it accordingly.
5990 *** Configuration Variables
5992 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
5993 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
5994 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
5995 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
5998 format:symbol-case-conv
5999 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
6000 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
6001 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
6002 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
6003 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
6005 format:iobj-case-conv
6006 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
6007 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
6010 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
6013 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
6019 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
6020 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
6021 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
6022 `format' padding style.
6025 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
6026 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
6027 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
6028 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
6032 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
6033 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
6034 directive parameters or modifiers)).
6037 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
6038 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
6039 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
6040 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
6041 parameters or modifiers)).
6044 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
6046 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
6048 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
6049 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
6051 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
6052 string-downcase! functions.
6054 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
6055 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
6057 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
6060 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
6063 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
6064 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
6066 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
6068 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
6069 the symbol had be read by `read'.
6071 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
6072 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
6073 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
6074 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
6075 would if STRING were input.
6077 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
6079 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
6080 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
6081 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
6082 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
6085 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
6087 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
6088 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
6091 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
6093 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
6094 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
6096 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
6097 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
6099 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
6100 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
6101 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
6102 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
6104 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
6105 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
6107 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
6108 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
6109 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
6111 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
6112 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
6114 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
6115 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
6116 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
6117 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
6118 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
6120 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
6121 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
6122 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
6123 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
6124 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
6125 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
6127 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
6128 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
6129 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
6132 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
6133 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
6134 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
6135 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
6136 the following grammar:
6137 ((apples (single-char #\a))
6138 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
6139 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
6140 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
6141 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
6142 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
6143 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
6144 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
6145 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
6146 last option in its combination)
6148 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
6149 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
6150 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
6151 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
6153 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
6154 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
6155 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
6157 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6158 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6159 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
6161 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
6162 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
6163 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
6164 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
6165 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
6166 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
6167 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
6168 ordinary argument strings.
6170 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
6171 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
6172 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
6173 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
6175 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
6176 as a list, associated with the empty list.
6178 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
6179 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
6180 - a required option is omitted
6181 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
6182 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
6183 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
6184 - an option predicate fails
6189 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
6192 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
6193 (verbose (required? #f)
6196 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
6197 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
6198 (predicate ,string?))))
6200 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
6201 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6203 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6204 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
6205 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
6206 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
6209 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
6211 It will be removed in a few releases.
6213 ** New syntax: lambda*
6214 ** New syntax: define*
6215 ** New syntax: define*-public
6216 ** New syntax: defmacro*
6217 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
6218 Guile now supports optional arguments.
6220 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
6221 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
6222 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
6223 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
6224 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
6226 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
6227 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
6228 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
6230 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
6232 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
6233 and examples for `lambda*':
6236 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
6238 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
6239 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
6240 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
6241 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
6242 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
6243 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
6244 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
6245 can be checked with the bound? macro.
6247 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
6249 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
6250 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
6251 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
6252 are given as keywords are bound to values.
6254 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
6255 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
6256 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
6257 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
6258 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
6259 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
6260 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
6261 and until the procedure is called.
6263 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
6265 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
6266 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
6267 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
6268 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
6269 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
6270 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
6271 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
6272 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
6273 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
6274 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
6276 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
6277 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
6278 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
6279 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
6282 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
6284 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
6285 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
6286 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
6287 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
6289 ** New syntax: and-let*
6290 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
6292 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
6293 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
6294 (<variable> <expression>)
6297 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
6298 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
6299 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
6302 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
6303 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
6304 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
6305 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
6306 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
6307 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
6308 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
6310 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
6311 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
6312 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
6313 shadow earlier bindings.
6315 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
6317 ** New sorting functions
6319 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
6320 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
6321 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
6322 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
6324 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
6325 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
6328 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6329 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
6330 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
6332 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
6333 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
6334 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
6335 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
6337 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6338 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
6339 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
6340 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
6341 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
6344 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6345 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
6346 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
6347 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
6348 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
6349 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
6351 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
6352 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
6353 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
6355 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6356 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
6357 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
6360 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
6361 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
6362 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
6364 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
6365 Added for compatibility with scsh.
6367 ** New built-in random number support
6369 *** New function: random N [STATE]
6370 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
6371 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
6372 returned have a uniform distribution.
6374 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
6375 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
6376 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
6377 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
6378 effect of the `random' operation.
6380 *** New variable: *random-state*
6381 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
6382 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
6383 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
6384 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
6385 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
6388 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
6389 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6390 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6391 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
6392 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
6394 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
6395 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6396 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6397 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
6398 initialized using SEED.
6400 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
6401 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
6402 range between 0 and 1.
6404 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6405 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
6406 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
6407 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
6408 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
6409 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
6410 or a uniform vector of doubles.
6412 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6413 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
6414 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
6415 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
6416 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
6417 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6419 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
6420 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
6421 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
6422 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
6424 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
6425 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
6426 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
6427 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6429 *** New function: random:exp STATE
6430 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
6431 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
6433 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
6435 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
6438 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
6439 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
6442 ** New function: make-guardian
6443 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
6444 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
6445 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
6446 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
6447 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
6449 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
6450 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
6451 one object if at all.
6453 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
6454 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
6455 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
6457 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
6458 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
6459 read again in last-in first-out order.
6461 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
6462 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
6464 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
6466 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
6467 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
6468 file position is used.
6470 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
6471 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
6472 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
6474 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
6475 redefined using seek.
6477 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
6478 size is not supplied.
6480 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
6481 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
6483 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
6484 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
6486 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
6488 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
6489 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
6490 and returns the contents as a single string.
6492 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
6493 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
6494 lists in serial order.
6496 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
6497 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
6498 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
6500 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
6501 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
6502 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
6503 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
6505 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
6506 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
6507 and #f if an error occured.
6509 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
6511 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
6512 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
6513 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
6514 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
6516 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
6518 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
6521 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
6523 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
6526 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6530 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
6531 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
6533 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
6534 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
6538 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6540 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
6542 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
6543 binds a variable named NAME to it.
6545 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
6547 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
6548 might change when we get the new module system.
6550 ** The smob interface
6552 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
6553 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
6555 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
6557 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
6561 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
6562 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
6563 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
6564 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
6565 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
6566 will be freed by the default free function.
6568 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6569 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
6570 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6571 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6573 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6574 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
6575 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6576 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6578 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
6580 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
6581 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
6585 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
6586 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6587 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6589 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
6590 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
6591 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6592 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6594 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
6595 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
6596 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
6598 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
6599 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
6600 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
6601 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
6603 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
6604 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
6605 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
6607 *** scm_newptob has been removed
6611 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
6613 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
6614 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
6615 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
6617 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
6618 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
6619 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
6621 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
6622 a string port's buffer.
6624 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
6625 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
6626 function pointers which together define the current random number
6627 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
6628 number library functions.
6630 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
6633 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
6634 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
6637 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
6638 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6640 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
6641 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
6643 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
6644 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
6647 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
6648 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
6649 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
6650 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
6652 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
6653 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
6654 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
6655 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
6656 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
6657 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
6658 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
6660 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
6661 by libguile and the application.
6663 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6664 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6665 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
6666 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
6668 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
6669 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
6671 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6672 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
6673 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
6675 ** Random number library functions
6676 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
6677 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
6678 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
6680 The default random state is stored in:
6682 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
6683 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
6684 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
6689 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
6691 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
6692 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
6693 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
6694 isn't a random state.
6696 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
6697 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
6699 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
6700 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
6701 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
6702 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
6704 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6705 Return 32 random bits.
6707 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6708 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
6710 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6711 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
6713 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6714 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
6716 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
6717 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6719 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
6720 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6721 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
6725 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
6727 * Changes to the distribution
6729 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
6730 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
6731 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
6734 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
6735 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
6736 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
6738 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
6739 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
6740 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
6741 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
6744 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
6745 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
6746 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
6748 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6750 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
6752 *** Function: batch-mode?
6754 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
6757 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
6759 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
6760 case has not been implemented.
6762 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
6763 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
6764 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
6767 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
6768 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
6770 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
6772 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6774 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
6776 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
6777 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
6780 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
6781 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
6782 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
6783 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
6786 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
6788 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
6789 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
6790 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
6791 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
6792 find those libraries.
6794 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
6795 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
6798 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
6800 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
6801 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
6802 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
6803 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
6805 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
6806 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
6807 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
6811 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
6813 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
6814 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
6815 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
6818 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
6819 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
6820 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
6821 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
6823 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
6824 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
6827 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
6828 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
6829 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
6830 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
6831 compiler where to find the libraries.
6833 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
6834 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
6835 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
6837 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
6838 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
6839 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
6840 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
6841 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
6845 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6847 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
6848 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
6849 internationalization support.
6851 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
6852 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
6853 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
6854 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
6855 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
6857 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
6858 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
6859 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
6860 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
6861 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
6863 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
6864 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
6865 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
6866 any GNU mirror site.
6868 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
6870 ** New function: add-history STRING
6871 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
6872 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
6873 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
6875 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
6877 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
6878 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
6879 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
6882 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
6883 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
6884 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
6886 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
6888 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
6891 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
6892 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
6895 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
6896 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
6897 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
6898 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
6899 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
6900 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
6902 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
6903 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
6904 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
6905 of the form mentioned above.
6907 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
6908 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
6909 returned in the special `rest' list.
6911 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
6912 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
6914 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
6916 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
6918 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
6920 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
6921 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
6922 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
6923 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
6924 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
6925 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
6926 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
6927 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
6930 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
6932 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
6934 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
6935 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
6938 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
6939 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
6940 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
6944 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
6945 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
6946 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
6947 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
6948 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
6949 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
6950 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
6951 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
6954 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
6956 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
6957 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
6958 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
6960 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
6962 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
6963 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
6965 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
6966 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
6967 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
6969 Why do we have this function?
6970 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
6971 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
6972 primitive, and display it differently, and
6973 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
6974 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
6977 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
6978 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
6981 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
6982 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
6983 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
6984 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
6986 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
6987 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
6990 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
6991 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
6993 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
6995 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
6996 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
6997 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
6998 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
6999 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
7000 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
7001 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
7004 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
7006 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
7007 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
7009 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
7010 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
7011 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
7012 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
7013 properly continue the print chain.
7015 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
7016 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
7017 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
7018 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
7019 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
7020 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
7021 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
7022 print-state, it is simply ignored.
7024 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
7025 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
7026 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
7027 safest to not check for these pairs.
7029 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
7030 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
7031 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
7032 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
7034 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
7036 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
7037 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
7039 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
7041 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
7043 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
7044 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
7045 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
7047 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
7048 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
7049 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
7051 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
7052 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
7053 the following functions and macros:
7055 Function: make-fluid
7057 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
7058 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
7059 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
7060 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
7061 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
7063 Function: fluid? OBJ
7065 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
7067 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
7068 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
7070 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
7071 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
7073 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
7075 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
7076 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
7077 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
7078 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
7079 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
7080 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
7081 modified by `with-fluids*'.
7083 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
7085 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
7086 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
7087 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
7088 should evaluate to a fluid.
7090 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
7092 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
7093 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
7094 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
7095 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
7096 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
7098 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
7101 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
7103 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
7105 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
7107 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
7110 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
7111 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
7112 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
7113 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
7114 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
7117 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
7118 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
7119 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
7121 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
7122 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
7123 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
7125 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
7126 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
7127 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7128 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
7130 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
7131 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
7132 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7133 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
7135 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
7136 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
7137 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
7138 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
7140 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
7141 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
7142 their revealed counts set to zero.
7144 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7145 Returns an integer file descriptor.
7147 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7148 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
7150 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7151 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
7153 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7154 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
7155 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
7157 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
7158 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
7159 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
7161 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
7162 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
7163 default environment inherited by child processes.
7165 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
7166 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
7167 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
7169 The return value is unspecified.
7171 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
7172 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
7173 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
7174 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
7175 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
7177 The return value is unspecified.
7179 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
7180 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
7188 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
7189 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
7192 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
7195 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
7196 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
7197 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
7199 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
7200 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
7201 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
7202 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
7205 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
7206 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
7208 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
7209 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
7210 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
7211 the `environ' procedure.
7213 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
7214 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
7217 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
7218 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
7220 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
7221 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
7222 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
7223 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
7225 *** procedure: times
7226 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
7227 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
7228 return a selected component:
7231 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
7235 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
7238 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
7242 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
7243 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
7247 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
7248 terminated child processes.
7250 ** Removed: list-length
7251 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
7252 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
7254 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
7256 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
7258 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
7260 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
7261 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
7262 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
7263 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
7265 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
7266 extra complexity it introduces.
7268 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
7269 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
7271 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
7272 variable to any non-empty value.
7274 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
7275 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
7277 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7279 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
7280 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
7282 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
7284 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
7285 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
7287 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
7289 ** vector handling routines
7291 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
7292 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
7293 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
7294 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
7295 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
7297 ** pair and list routines
7299 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
7302 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
7304 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
7307 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7309 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
7311 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
7312 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
7313 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
7314 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
7315 site-specific initialization code.
7317 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
7318 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
7319 initialization processes.
7321 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
7322 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
7323 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
7324 initialized properly.
7326 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
7327 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
7328 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
7330 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
7331 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
7332 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
7333 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
7334 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
7336 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
7338 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
7339 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
7340 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
7341 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
7342 objects the smob refers to get marked.
7344 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
7345 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
7346 which look like this:
7349 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
7351 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
7352 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
7355 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
7356 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
7359 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
7361 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
7362 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
7363 you will need to change your functions slightly.
7365 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
7366 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
7367 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
7368 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
7369 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
7371 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
7372 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
7374 int (*free) (SCM port);
7375 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
7376 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
7377 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
7381 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
7382 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
7383 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
7385 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
7388 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
7389 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
7390 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
7392 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
7393 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
7394 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
7397 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
7401 struct timeval *timeout);
7403 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
7404 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
7405 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
7406 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
7407 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
7408 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
7410 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
7411 scm_catch_body_t body,
7413 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7416 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
7417 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
7418 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
7419 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
7420 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
7421 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
7423 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
7425 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7428 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
7429 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
7430 spawning threads from application C code.
7432 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
7433 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
7434 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
7435 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
7436 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
7437 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
7439 ** Removed functions:
7441 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
7442 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
7444 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
7446 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
7447 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
7449 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
7451 ** mbstrings are now removed
7453 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
7454 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
7456 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
7458 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
7459 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
7460 their new names and arguments:
7462 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
7463 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
7464 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
7465 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
7468 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
7470 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
7472 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
7475 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
7477 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
7478 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
7479 pass a #f arg to catch.
7481 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
7483 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
7484 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
7487 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
7488 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
7489 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
7490 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
7491 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
7492 reclaim its storage.
7494 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
7495 worrying that some other function you call will call
7496 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
7497 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
7498 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
7499 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
7502 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
7504 * Changes to the distribution
7506 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
7507 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
7510 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
7511 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
7513 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7514 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7516 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
7518 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
7519 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
7520 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
7522 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7524 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
7525 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
7526 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
7527 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
7528 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
7529 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
7531 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
7532 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
7533 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
7536 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
7537 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
7538 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
7539 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
7541 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
7542 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
7543 libraries to your link command:
7545 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
7546 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
7547 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7548 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7550 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
7551 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
7552 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
7554 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7556 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
7557 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
7560 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
7562 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
7563 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
7564 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
7565 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
7566 searched is system dependent.
7568 (dynamic-object? VAL)
7570 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
7572 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
7574 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
7575 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
7577 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7579 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
7580 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
7581 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
7582 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
7583 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
7586 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7588 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
7589 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
7590 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
7591 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
7592 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
7594 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
7596 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
7597 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
7599 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
7601 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
7602 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
7603 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
7606 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
7608 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
7609 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
7610 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
7611 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
7613 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
7614 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
7616 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
7618 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
7619 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
7621 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
7623 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
7624 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
7632 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
7634 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
7635 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
7636 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
7637 a more informative way.
7639 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
7640 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
7641 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
7642 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
7643 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
7644 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
7646 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
7647 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
7650 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
7651 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
7652 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
7655 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
7656 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
7657 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
7658 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
7659 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
7660 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
7662 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
7663 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
7664 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
7665 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
7668 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
7669 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
7670 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
7671 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
7672 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
7673 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
7675 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
7676 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
7677 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
7678 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
7679 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
7681 *** regexp functions
7683 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
7684 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
7685 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
7687 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
7688 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
7689 with SCSH regular expressions.
7691 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
7692 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
7693 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
7694 position of STR at which to begin matching.
7696 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
7697 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
7698 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
7699 `string-match' returns `#f'.
7701 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
7702 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
7703 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
7704 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
7705 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
7706 match strings against the compiled regexp.
7708 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
7709 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
7710 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
7711 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
7712 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
7714 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7716 **** Constant: regexp/extended
7717 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
7718 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
7719 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
7721 **** Constant: regexp/icase
7722 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
7723 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
7725 **** Constant: regexp/newline
7726 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
7728 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
7731 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
7732 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7733 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
7735 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
7736 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7737 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
7739 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
7740 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
7741 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
7742 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
7743 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
7746 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7748 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
7749 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
7750 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
7751 used when different portions of a string are passed to
7752 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
7753 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
7755 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
7756 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
7757 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
7759 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
7760 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
7763 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
7764 and replace them with the contents of another string.
7766 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
7767 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
7768 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
7769 may be one of the following arguments:
7771 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
7773 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
7775 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
7776 the regexp match is written.
7778 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
7779 following the regexp match is written.
7781 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
7782 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
7785 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
7786 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
7787 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
7788 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
7789 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
7790 which should be matched against this regular expression.
7792 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
7795 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
7796 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
7797 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
7798 written out to PORT.
7800 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
7801 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
7802 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
7803 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
7804 will return after processing a single match.
7806 *** Match Structures
7808 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
7809 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
7810 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
7811 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
7812 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
7813 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
7816 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
7817 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
7818 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
7819 information about the original target string that was matched against a
7820 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
7822 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
7823 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
7824 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
7826 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
7827 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
7828 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
7829 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
7830 number N did not match, return `#f'.
7832 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
7833 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
7835 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
7836 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
7838 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
7839 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
7841 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
7842 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
7844 **** Function: match:count MATCH
7845 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
7846 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
7847 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
7849 **** Function: match:string MATCH
7850 Return the original TARGET string.
7852 *** Backslash Escapes
7854 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
7855 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
7856 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
7857 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
7858 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
7859 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
7861 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
7862 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
7863 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
7864 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
7865 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
7866 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
7867 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
7868 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
7870 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
7871 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
7872 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
7873 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
7874 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
7875 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
7876 each match a single backslash in the target string.
7878 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
7879 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
7880 return the resulting string.
7882 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
7883 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
7884 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
7885 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
7886 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
7887 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
7888 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
7889 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
7890 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
7891 translated to the single character `*'.
7893 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
7894 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
7895 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
7896 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
7897 consecutive backslashes:
7899 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
7901 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
7902 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
7903 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
7905 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
7906 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
7907 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
7908 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
7909 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
7910 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
7912 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
7914 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
7915 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
7916 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
7917 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
7918 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
7919 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
7920 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
7921 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
7922 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
7923 cumbersome escape syntax.
7925 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7927 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7929 * Changes to system call interfaces:
7931 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
7934 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
7936 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
7938 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
7941 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
7942 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
7943 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
7944 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
7945 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
7947 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
7948 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
7949 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
7950 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
7951 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
7952 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
7953 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
7956 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
7957 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
7958 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
7961 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
7962 `force-output' on every port open for output.
7964 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
7965 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
7966 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
7967 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
7968 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
7969 installed, you can say:
7971 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
7974 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7976 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
7977 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
7978 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
7979 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
7980 new dynamic roots and threads.
7983 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
7985 * Changes to the distribution.
7987 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
7989 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
7990 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
7991 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
7992 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
7993 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
7994 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
7995 programming language. These are packaged together because the
7996 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
7998 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
8001 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
8002 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
8007 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
8009 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
8010 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
8012 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
8013 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
8014 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
8015 the (command-line) function.
8016 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
8017 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
8018 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
8020 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
8021 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
8022 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
8023 command line arguments
8024 -ds do -s script at this point
8025 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
8026 -h, --help display this help and exit
8027 -v, --version display version information and exit
8028 \ read arguments from following script lines
8030 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
8031 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
8033 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8036 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8040 (main (command-line))
8042 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
8044 ekko a speckled gecko
8046 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
8047 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
8048 following list of command-line arguments:
8050 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
8052 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
8053 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
8054 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
8055 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
8056 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8058 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
8060 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
8062 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
8063 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
8066 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
8067 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
8068 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
8069 SCSH) for circumventing them.
8071 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
8072 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
8073 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
8074 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
8076 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
8080 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8084 If the user invokes this script as follows:
8086 ekko a speckled gecko
8088 Unix expands this into
8090 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
8092 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
8093 read from the second line of the script, producing:
8095 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8097 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
8098 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8100 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
8101 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
8102 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
8103 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
8104 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
8105 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
8106 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
8107 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
8108 it only terminates the argument list.)
8109 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
8110 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
8111 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
8112 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
8113 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
8114 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
8115 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
8116 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
8118 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
8120 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
8121 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
8122 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
8123 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
8124 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
8126 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
8127 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
8128 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
8130 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
8132 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
8133 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
8134 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
8135 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
8138 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
8139 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
8140 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
8142 * Changes to Scheme functions
8144 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
8145 and disabled by default.
8147 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
8148 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
8149 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
8150 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
8152 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
8154 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
8156 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
8157 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
8159 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
8160 (read-set! keywords #f)
8162 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
8163 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
8164 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
8167 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
8168 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
8169 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
8172 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
8173 support for Scheme functions.
8175 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8176 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
8177 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
8178 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
8181 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8182 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
8183 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
8186 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
8187 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
8188 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
8191 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
8192 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
8193 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
8194 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
8195 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
8196 display the result as a prompt.
8197 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
8199 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
8200 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
8201 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
8204 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
8205 procedure of zero arguments.
8207 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
8208 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
8209 argument is bound in the current module.
8211 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
8212 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
8213 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
8214 public bindings into the current module.
8216 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
8217 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
8219 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
8220 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
8222 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
8223 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
8225 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
8226 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
8228 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
8229 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
8231 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
8232 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
8233 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
8234 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
8235 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
8237 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
8238 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
8239 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
8240 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
8242 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
8245 ** Changes to I/O functions
8247 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
8248 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
8249 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
8251 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
8252 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
8253 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
8255 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
8256 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
8258 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
8259 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
8260 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
8261 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
8263 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
8265 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
8266 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
8268 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
8269 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
8270 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
8271 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
8272 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
8275 'trim omit delimiter from result
8276 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
8277 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
8278 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
8280 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
8282 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
8283 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
8285 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
8286 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
8287 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
8288 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
8289 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
8291 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
8292 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
8293 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
8295 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
8296 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
8297 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
8298 above, and defaults to 'peek.
8300 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
8301 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8303 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
8304 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
8306 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
8308 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
8309 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
8310 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
8311 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
8312 a delimiting character.
8313 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
8315 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
8316 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
8317 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
8318 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
8319 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
8320 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
8322 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
8323 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8325 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
8326 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
8327 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
8329 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
8330 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
8331 the array to read and write.
8333 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
8334 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
8337 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
8339 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
8342 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
8343 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
8344 Values for COMMAND are:
8346 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
8347 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
8348 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
8349 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
8350 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
8351 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
8352 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
8353 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
8355 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
8357 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
8358 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
8359 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
8360 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
8361 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
8362 corresponding return set will be the same.
8364 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
8367 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
8368 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
8369 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
8370 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
8371 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
8372 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
8373 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
8374 special file being created.
8376 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
8377 clashing with various SCSH forks.
8379 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
8380 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
8381 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
8382 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
8383 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
8384 and originating address.
8386 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
8387 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
8388 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
8390 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
8393 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
8394 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
8397 (status:exit-val STATUS)
8398 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
8399 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
8400 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
8401 this function returns #f.
8403 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
8404 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
8405 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
8408 (status:term-sig STATUS)
8409 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
8410 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
8413 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
8414 a valid STATUS value.
8416 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
8418 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
8419 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
8421 Component Accessor Setter
8422 ========================= ============ ============
8423 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
8424 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
8425 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
8426 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
8427 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
8428 year tm:year set-tm:year
8429 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
8430 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
8431 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
8432 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
8433 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
8435 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
8436 describing the host system:
8439 ============================================== ================
8440 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
8441 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
8442 release level of the operating system utsname:release
8443 version level of the operating system utsname:version
8444 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
8446 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
8447 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
8448 system's user database:
8451 ====================== =================
8452 user name passwd:name
8453 user password passwd:passwd
8456 real name passwd:gecos
8457 home directory passwd:dir
8458 shell program passwd:shell
8460 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
8461 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
8462 system's group database:
8465 ======================= ============
8466 group name group:name
8467 group password group:passwd
8469 group members group:mem
8471 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
8472 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
8476 ========================= ===============
8477 official name of host hostent:name
8478 alias list hostent:aliases
8479 host address type hostent:addrtype
8480 length of address hostent:length
8481 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
8483 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
8484 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
8488 ========================= ===============
8489 official name of net netent:name
8490 alias list netent:aliases
8491 net number type netent:addrtype
8492 net number netent:net
8494 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
8495 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
8499 ========================= ===============
8500 official protocol name protoent:name
8501 alias list protoent:aliases
8502 protocol number protoent:proto
8504 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
8505 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
8509 ========================= ===============
8510 official service name servent:name
8511 alias list servent:aliases
8512 port number servent:port
8513 protocol to use servent:proto
8515 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
8516 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
8519 ======================================== ===============
8520 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
8521 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
8522 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
8523 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
8525 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
8526 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
8527 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
8529 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
8530 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
8532 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
8533 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
8535 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
8536 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
8538 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
8540 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
8542 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
8543 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
8544 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
8546 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
8547 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
8548 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
8549 return the remaining characters as a string.
8551 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
8552 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
8553 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
8555 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
8557 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8559 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
8562 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
8565 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
8566 and returns the array
8568 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
8569 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
8570 the user to interpret the data both ways.
8572 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8574 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
8575 symbol's value from C code:
8577 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
8578 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
8579 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
8580 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
8582 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
8583 without assigning them a value.
8585 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
8586 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
8587 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
8589 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
8590 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
8591 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
8593 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
8594 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
8596 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
8597 doesn't actually care about that.
8599 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
8600 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
8601 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
8603 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
8604 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
8605 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
8606 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
8607 which we have just created and initialized.
8609 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
8610 should one occur. We call it like this:
8611 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
8613 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
8614 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
8615 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
8616 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
8617 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
8618 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
8621 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
8622 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
8623 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
8624 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
8625 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
8626 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
8627 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
8630 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
8631 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
8632 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
8633 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
8634 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
8637 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
8638 scm_internal_catch, except:
8640 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
8641 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
8642 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
8643 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
8646 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
8647 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
8648 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
8650 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
8651 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
8652 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
8653 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
8656 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
8657 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
8658 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
8660 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
8661 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
8662 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
8663 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
8664 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
8666 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
8667 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
8668 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
8670 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
8671 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
8672 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
8674 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
8675 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
8677 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
8678 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
8679 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
8682 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
8683 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
8684 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
8685 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
8686 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
8687 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
8688 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
8691 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
8692 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
8694 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
8695 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
8696 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
8697 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
8698 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
8701 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
8702 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
8704 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
8705 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
8708 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
8709 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
8711 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8714 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
8715 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
8716 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
8717 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
8718 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
8719 given the following arguments:
8721 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8723 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
8725 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
8727 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8730 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
8731 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
8732 command-line arguments.
8734 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
8735 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
8736 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
8737 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
8738 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
8739 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
8742 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8745 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
8746 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
8748 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
8749 rearranged slightly. They are now:
8751 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8752 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8753 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
8754 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
8756 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8757 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8759 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8760 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
8761 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8762 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
8764 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8765 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8767 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
8768 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
8770 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
8772 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
8773 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
8774 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
8777 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
8778 returns a port instead of an FD object.
8780 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
8781 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
8786 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
8789 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
8791 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
8792 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
8793 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
8794 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
8796 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
8798 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
8800 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
8801 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
8802 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
8803 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
8804 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
8805 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
8806 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
8807 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
8808 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
8809 for more information.
8811 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
8812 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
8814 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
8815 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
8816 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
8817 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
8818 following two lines at the top of the file:
8820 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8823 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
8824 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
8825 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
8827 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
8829 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8831 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
8834 (display (car args))
8835 (if (pair? (cdr args))
8837 (loop (cdr args)))))
8840 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
8841 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
8842 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
8843 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
8844 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
8845 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
8849 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
8852 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
8855 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
8857 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
8858 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
8859 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
8860 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
8861 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
8864 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
8865 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
8866 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
8867 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
8868 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
8871 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
8874 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
8875 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
8876 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
8879 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
8880 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
8881 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
8883 to see a backtrace, and
8884 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
8885 to see them by default.
8889 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
8891 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
8893 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
8894 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
8897 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
8898 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
8899 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
8900 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
8903 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
8904 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
8905 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
8906 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
8907 functions which inspired them.
8909 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
8910 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
8914 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
8916 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
8918 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
8919 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
8922 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
8923 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
8924 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
8926 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
8927 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
8928 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
8929 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
8930 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
8932 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
8934 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
8935 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
8936 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
8939 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
8942 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
8944 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
8945 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
8946 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
8947 above should serve their purposes.
8949 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
8950 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
8951 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
8952 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
8954 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
8957 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
8958 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
8959 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
8960 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
8962 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
8963 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
8964 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
8965 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
8967 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
8968 for the `read' function.
8971 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
8972 to that of `integer?'.
8974 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
8975 use the R4RS names for these functions.
8977 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
8978 it simply returns the object's property list.
8980 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
8981 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
8982 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
8983 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
8985 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
8987 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
8990 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
8992 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
8993 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
8995 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
8997 void (*main_func) (),
9000 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
9001 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
9002 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
9003 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
9004 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
9006 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
9007 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
9008 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
9009 know which arguments have been processed.
9011 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
9012 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
9013 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
9014 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
9015 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
9017 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
9018 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
9019 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
9020 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
9021 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
9022 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
9023 people from making that mistake.
9025 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
9026 convenient ways to override these when desired.
9028 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
9030 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
9034 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
9037 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
9038 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
9039 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
9040 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
9043 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
9044 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
9045 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
9046 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
9049 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
9050 have been added to the Guile library.
9052 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
9053 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
9054 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
9057 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
9058 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
9059 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
9061 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
9062 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
9063 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
9064 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
9065 argument from the list.
9068 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
9071 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
9072 null-terminated string, and returns it.
9074 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
9075 to a Scheme port object.
9077 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
9078 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
9083 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
9085 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
9086 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
9087 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
9088 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
9089 code as a special datatype.
9091 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
9092 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
9093 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
9094 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
9095 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
9098 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
9099 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
9100 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
9101 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
9102 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
9104 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
9107 Copyright information:
9109 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
9111 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
9112 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
9113 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
9114 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
9116 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
9117 of this document, or of portions of it,
9118 under the above conditions, provided also that they
9119 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
9124 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"