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, 2011 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.
11 Changes in 1.9.15 (since the 1.9.14 prerelease):
13 ** Formally deprecate omission of port to `format'
15 It used to be that you could omit passing a port to `format', in some
16 cases. This still works, but has been formally deprecated.
20 Noah Lavine and Kan-Ru Chen noticed and fixed a number of embarrassing
21 bugs in object creation, unicode literals in strings, empty function
22 bodies, non-breaking whitespace, and numeric literals.
24 ** `(web ...)' changes
26 *** `parse-uri', `unparse-uri' now called `string->uri', `uri->string'
28 *** `uri-decode' takes `#:encoding' keyword argument, not `#:charset'
30 *** HTTP header representation change
32 Guile properly garbage-collects symbols, so there's no need to read some
33 headers as symbols and some as strings: all header names are symbols
34 now. The same goes for many key-value constructs in headers. Guile
35 parses the challenge/authentication headers now, as well. Header decl
36 objects are no longer exposed to the user.
38 *** Request and response bodies are always bytevectors
40 Reading bodies as latin-1 strings was a cute hack, but not general, so
41 Guile's only official fetch-me-the-body procedures return bytevectors
44 ** New procedures: scm_{to,from}_{utf8,latin1}_symbol{n,}
45 ** New procedures: scm_{to,from}_{utf8,utf32,latin1}_symbol{n,}
47 These new procedures convert to and from string representations in
50 Basically, continue to use locale encoding for user input, user output,
51 or interacting with the C library. Use latin1 for ASCII, and for
52 literals in source code. Use utf8 for interaction with modern libraries
53 which deal in UTF-8. Use utf32 for interaction with utf32-using
54 libraries. Otherwise use scm_to_stringn or scm_from_stringn with a
57 Also, scm_from_latin1_symbol is quite a bit faster now.
59 ** Documentation updates
61 The GOOPS manual saw a lot of work, as well as documentation for the
64 ** Guile uses iconv directly for reading from and writing to ports.
66 In addition to providing faster Unicode I/O (e.g., `display',
67 `read-char'), this change improves error reporting.
69 For instance, the `encoding-error' exception conveys information about
70 the port and character that could not be encoded. Likewise, the new
71 `decoding-error' exception conveys information about the port from which
72 data failed to be decoded, and leaves the port in a known position.
74 ** Source files default to UTF-8.
76 If source files do not specify their encoding via a `coding:' block,
77 the default encoding is UTF-8, instead of being taken from the current
82 Thanks to Mark Harig for many suggestions regarding the manual page,
83 which is getting better.
85 ** Interactive Guile installs the current locale.
87 Instead of leaving the user in the "C" locale, running the Guile REPL
88 installs the current locale. [FIXME xref?]
90 ** `recv!', `recvfrom!', `send', `sendto' now deal in bytevectors
92 These socket procedures now take bytevectors as arguments, instead of
93 strings. There is some deprecated string support, however.
95 ** New foreign API: `define-wrapped-pointer-type', `pointer?'
97 See "Foreign Types", for more.
99 ** Changes and bugfixes in numerics code
101 *** Added two new sets of fast quotient and remainder operators
103 Added two new sets of fast quotient and remainder operator pairs with
104 different semantics than the R5RS operators. They support not only
105 integers, but all reals, including exact rationals and inexact
106 floating point numbers.
108 These procedures accept two real numbers N and D, where the divisor D
109 must be non-zero. `euclidean-quotient' returns the integer Q and
110 `euclidean-remainder' returns the real R such that N = Q*D + R and
111 0 <= R < |D|. `euclidean/' returns both Q and R, and is more
112 efficient than computing each separately. Note that when D > 0,
113 `euclidean-quotient' returns floor(N/D), and when D < 0 it returns
116 `centered-quotient', `centered-remainder', and `centered/' are similar
117 except that the range of remainders is -abs(D/2) <= R < abs(D/2), and
118 `centered-quotient' rounds N/D to the nearest integer.
120 Note that these operators are equivalent to the R6RS integer division
121 operators `div', `mod', `div-and-mod', `div0', `mod0', and
124 *** `eqv?' and `equal?' now compare numbers equivalently
126 scm_equal_p `equal?' now behaves equivalently to scm_eqv_p `eqv?' for
127 numeric values, per R5RS. Previously, equal? worked differently,
128 e.g. `(equal? 0.0 -0.0)' returned #t but `(eqv? 0.0 -0.0)' returned #f,
129 and `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' returned #f but `(eqv? +nan.0 +nan.0)'
132 *** `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' now returns #t
134 Previously, `(equal? +nan.0 +nan.0)' returned #f, although
135 `(let ((x +nan.0)) (equal? x x))' and `(eqv? +nan.0 +nan.0)'
136 both returned #t. R5RS requires that `equal?' behave like
137 `eqv?' when comparing numbers.
139 *** Change in handling products `*' involving exact 0
141 scm_product `*' now handles exact 0 differently. A product containing
142 an exact 0 now returns an exact 0 if and only if the other arguments
143 are all exact. An inexact zero is returned if and only if the other
144 arguments are all finite but not all exact. If an infinite or NaN
145 value is present, a NaN value is returned. Previously, any product
146 containing an exact 0 yielded an exact 0, regardless of the other
149 *** `expt' and `integer-expt' changes when the base is 0
151 While `(expt 0 0)' is still 1, and `(expt 0 N)' for N > 0 is still
152 zero, `(expt 0 N)' for N < 0 is now a NaN value, and likewise for
153 integer-expt. This is more correct, and conforming to R6RS, but seems
154 to be incompatible with R5RS, which would return 0 for all non-zero
157 *** `expt' and `integer-expt' are more generic, less strict
159 When raising to an exact non-negative integer exponent, `expt' and
160 `integer-expt' are now able to exponentiate any object that can be
161 multiplied using `*'. They can also raise an object to an exact
162 negative integer power if its reciprocal can be taken using `/'.
163 In order to allow this, the type of the first argument is no longer
164 checked when raising to an exact integer power. If the exponent is 0
165 or 1, the first parameter is not manipulated at all, and need not
166 even support multiplication.
168 *** Infinities are no longer integers, nor rationals
170 scm_integer_p `integer?' and scm_rational_p `rational?' now return #f
171 for infinities, per R6RS. Previously they returned #t for real
172 infinities. The real infinities and NaNs are still considered real by
173 scm_real `real?' however, per R6RS.
175 *** NaNs are no longer rationals
177 scm_rational_p `rational?' now returns #f for NaN values, per R6RS.
178 Previously it returned #t for real NaN values. They are still
179 considered real by scm_real `real?' however, per R6RS.
181 *** `inf?' and `nan?' now throw exceptions for non-reals
183 The domain of `inf?' and `nan?' is the real numbers. Guile now signals
184 an error when a non-real number or non-number is passed to these
185 procedures. (Note that NaNs _are_ considered numbers by scheme, despite
188 *** `rationalize' bugfixes and changes
190 Fixed bugs in scm_rationalize `rationalize'. Previously, it returned
191 exact integers unmodified, although that was incorrect if the epsilon
192 was at least 1 or inexact, e.g. (rationalize 4 1) should return 3 per
193 R5RS and R6RS, but previously it returned 4. It also now handles
194 cases involving infinities and NaNs properly, per R6RS.
196 *** New procedure: `finite?'
198 Add scm_finite_p `finite?' from R6RS to guile core, which returns #t
199 if and only if its argument is neither infinite nor a NaN. Note that
200 this is not the same as (not (inf? x)) or (not (infinite? x)), since
201 NaNs are neither finite nor infinite.
203 *** R6RS base library changes
205 **** `div', `mod', `div-and-mod', `div0', `mod0', `div0-and-mod0'
207 Efficient versions of these R6RS division operators are now supported.
208 See the NEWS entry entitled `Added two new sets of fast quotient and
209 remainder operators' for more information.
211 **** `infinite?' changes
213 `infinite?' and `finite?' now throw exceptions for non-numbers. (Note
214 that NaNs _are_ considered numbers by scheme, despite their name).
216 **** `real-valued?', `rational-valued?' and `integer-valued?' changes
218 These predicates are now implemented in accordance with R6RS.
220 ** R6RS textual I/O procedures raise R6RS error conditions
222 R6RS procedures `get-char', `put-string', etc. now raise the correct
223 R6RS error coding, i.e., `&i/o-decoding-error' or `&i/o-encoding-error'.
225 ** New reader option: `hungry-eol-escapes'
227 Guile's string syntax is more compatible with R6RS when the
228 `hungry-eol-escapes' option is enabled. See "String Syntax" in the
229 manual, for more information.
231 ** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes
233 Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information.
237 Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series):
239 * New modules (see the manual for details)
241 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
242 ** `(srfi srfi-27)', sources of random bits
243 ** `(srfi srfi-38)', External Representation for Data With Shared Structure
244 ** `(srfi srfi-42)', eager comprehensions
245 ** `(srfi srfi-45)', primitives for expressing iterative lazy algorithms
246 ** `(srfi srfi-67)', compare procedures
247 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
248 ** `(ice-9 futures)', fine-grain parallelism
249 ** `(rnrs bytevectors)', the R6RS bytevector API
250 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
251 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
252 ** `(ice-9 vlist)', lists with constant-time random access; hash lists
253 ** `(system foreign)', foreign function interface
254 ** `(sxml match)', a pattern matcher for SXML
255 ** `(srfi srfi-9 gnu)', extensions to the SRFI-9 record library
256 ** `(system vm coverage)', a line-by-line code coverage library
257 ** `(web uri)', URI data type, parser, and unparser
258 ** `(web http)', HTTP header parsers and unparsers
259 ** `(web request)', HTTP request data type, reader, and writer
260 ** `(web response)', HTTP response data type, reader, and writer
261 ** `(web server)', Generic HTTP server
262 ** `(ice-9 poll)', a poll wrapper
263 ** `(web server http)', HTTP-over-TCP web server implementation
265 ** Replaced `(ice-9 match)' with Alex Shinn's compatible, hygienic matcher.
267 Guile's copy of Andrew K. Wright's `match' library has been replaced by
268 a compatible hygienic implementation by Alex Shinn. It is now
269 documented, see "Pattern Matching" in the manual.
271 Compared to Andrew K. Wright's `match', the new `match' lacks
272 `match-define', `match:error-control', `match:set-error-control',
273 `match:error', `match:set-error', and all structure-related procedures.
275 ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
277 The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
278 toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
279 "Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
281 ** Integration of lalr-scm, a parser generator
283 Guile has included Dominique Boucher's fine `lalr-scm' parser generator
284 as `(system base lalr)'. See "LALR(1) Parsing" in the manual, for more
287 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
289 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
291 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
292 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
294 ** Evaluating Scheme code does not use the C stack.
296 Besides when compiling Guile itself, Guile no longer uses a recursive C
297 function as an evaluator. This obviates the need to check the C stack
298 pointer for overflow. Continuations still capture the C stack, however.
300 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
301 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
303 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
304 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
305 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
308 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
310 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. See
311 "Using Guile Interactively" in the manual, for more information.
313 ** Remove old Emacs interface
315 Guile had an unused `--emacs' command line argument that was supposed to
316 help when running Guile inside Emacs. This option has been removed, and
317 the helper functions `named-module-use!' and `load-emacs-interface' have
320 ** Add `(system repl server)' module and `--listen' command-line argument
322 The `(system repl server)' module exposes procedures to listen on
323 sockets for connections, and serve REPLs to those clients. The --listen
324 command-line argument allows any Guile program to thus be remotely
327 See "Invoking Guile" for more information on `--listen'.
329 ** Command line additions
331 The guile binary now supports a new switch "-x", which can be used to
332 extend the list of filename extensions tried when loading files
335 ** New reader options: `square-brackets' and `r6rs-hex-escapes'
337 The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
338 `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
339 parentheses. This option is on by default.
341 When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
342 will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS. R6RS string
343 escape sequences are incompatible with Guile's existing escapes, though,
344 so this option is off by default.
346 ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
348 The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
349 profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
350 time. See `,help profile' for more information.
352 Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
353 during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
355 ** Recursive debugging REPL on error
357 When Guile sees an error at the REPL, instead of saving the stack, Guile
358 will directly enter a recursive REPL in the dynamic context of the
359 error. See "Error Handling" in the manual, for more information.
361 A recursive REPL is the same as any other REPL, except that it
362 has been augmented with debugging information, so that one can inspect
363 the context of the error. The debugger has been integrated with the REPL
364 via a set of debugging meta-commands.
366 For example, one may access a backtrace with `,backtrace' (or
367 `,bt'). See "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for more
370 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
372 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
375 ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
377 Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
378 `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
379 include `/path/to/lib'.
381 ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
383 Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
386 ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
388 When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
389 version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
390 allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
391 installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
394 ** Value history in the REPL on by default
396 By default, the REPL will save computed values in variables like `$1',
397 `$2', and the like. There are programmatic and interactive interfaces to
398 control this. See "Value History" in the manual, for more information.
400 ** Readline tab completion for arguments
402 When readline is enabled, tab completion works for arguments too, not
403 just for the operator position.
405 ** Expression-oriented readline history
407 Guile's readline history now tries to operate on expressions instead of
408 input lines. Let us know what you think!
410 ** Interactive Guile follows GNU conventions
412 As recommended by the GPL, Guile now shows a brief copyright and
413 warranty disclaimer on startup, along with pointers to more information.
415 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
417 ** Support for R6RS libraries
419 The `library' and `import' forms from the latest Scheme report have been
420 added to Guile, in such a way that R6RS libraries share a namespace with
421 Guile modules. R6RS modules may import Guile modules, and are available
422 for Guile modules to import via use-modules and all the rest. See "R6RS
423 Libraries" in the manual for more information.
425 ** Implementations of R6RS libraries
427 Guile now has implementations for all of the libraries defined in the
428 R6RS. Thanks to Julian Graham for this excellent hack. See "R6RS
429 Standard Libraries" in the manual for a full list of libraries.
431 ** Partial R6RS compatibility
433 Guile now has enough support for R6RS to run a reasonably large subset
436 Guile is not fully R6RS compatible. Many incompatibilities are simply
437 bugs, though some parts of Guile will remain R6RS-incompatible for the
438 foreseeable future. See "R6RS Incompatibilities" in the manual, for more
441 Please contact bug-guile@gnu.org if you have found an issue not
442 mentioned in that compatibility list.
444 ** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
446 Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
447 still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
448 compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
449 primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
451 This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
452 to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
453 providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
454 code, and simplifying debugging.
456 As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
457 representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
459 There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
460 takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
461 information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
462 both of these situations.
464 There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
465 public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
466 we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
467 contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
469 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
471 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
472 not apply to the compiler.
474 ** No more `local-eval'
476 `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
477 lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
478 environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
479 and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
482 If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
483 own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
486 ** Scheme source files will now be compiled automatically.
488 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
489 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
490 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
492 Note that this mechanism depends on the timestamp of the .go file being
493 newer than that of the .scm file; if the .scm or .go files are moved
494 after installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
497 Autocompiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
498 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
499 will be created if needed.
501 To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
502 variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line.
504 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
506 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
507 in the next prerelease.
509 ** New POSIX procedure: `getsid'
511 Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
513 ** New POSIX procedure: `getaddrinfo'
515 Scheme binding for the `getaddrinfo' C library function.
517 ** Multicast socket options
519 Support was added for the IP_MULTICAST_TTL and IP_MULTICAST_IF socket
520 options. See "Network Sockets and Communication" in the manual, for
523 ** New GNU procedures: `setaffinity' and `getaffinity'.
525 See "Processes" in the manual, for more information.
527 ** New procedures: `compose', `negate', and `const'
529 See "Higher-Order Functions" in the manual, for more information.
531 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
533 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
534 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
535 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments'
537 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
538 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
539 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
540 procedures' docstrings for more information.
542 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
543 combining arity and formals. For example:
545 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
546 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
548 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
551 ** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
553 These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are
554 no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you
555 probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will
556 probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway).
558 ** New language: ECMAScript
560 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
561 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
562 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
563 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
565 ** New language: Brainfuck
567 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
568 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
569 languages. See the manual for details, or
570 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
571 Brainfuck language itself.
573 ** New language: Elisp
575 Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can
576 now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel
577 Kraft and Brian Templeton, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
579 ** Better documentation infrastructure for macros
581 It is now possible to introspect on the type of a macro, e.g.
582 syntax-rules, identifier-syntax, etc, and extract information about that
583 macro, such as the syntax-rules patterns or the defmacro arguments.
584 `(texinfo reflection)' takes advantage of this to give better macro
587 ** Support for arbitrary procedure metadata
589 Building on its support for docstrings, Guile now supports multiple
590 docstrings, adding them to the tail of a compiled procedure's
591 properties. For example:
597 (procedure-properties foo)
598 => ((name . foo) (documentation . "one") (documentation . "two"))
600 Also, vectors of pairs are now treated as additional metadata entries:
603 #((quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
605 (procedure-properties bar)
606 => ((name . bar) (quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
608 This allows arbitrary literals to be embedded as metadata in a compiled
611 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
614 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
616 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
617 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
620 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
621 (define (helper x) ...)
623 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
625 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
628 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
629 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
631 ** Support for version information in Guile's `module' form
633 Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. See "R6RS Version
634 References", "General Information about Modules", "Using Guile Modules",
635 and "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual for more information.
637 ** Support for renaming bindings on module export
639 Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
640 export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
641 should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
642 for more information.
644 ** New procedure: `module-export-all!'
646 This procedure exports all current and future bindings from a module.
647 Use as `(module-export-all! (current-module))'.
649 ** New procedure `reload-module', and `,reload' REPL command
651 See "Module System Reflection" and "Module Commands" in the manual, for
654 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
656 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. See "Eval When"
657 in the manual, for more information.
659 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
662 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
663 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
665 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
667 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
669 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
671 It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g.
672 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate
673 feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the
674 default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0
675 in response to user feedback.
677 ** Support for `letrec*'
679 Guile now supports `letrec*', a recursive lexical binding operator in
680 which the identifiers are bound in order. See "Local Bindings" in the
681 manual, for more details.
683 ** Internal definitions now expand to `letrec*'
685 Following the R6RS, internal definitions now expand to letrec* instead
686 of letrec. The following program is invalid for R5RS, but valid for
691 (define baz (+ bar 20))
694 ;; R5RS and Guile <= 1.8:
695 (foo) => Unbound variable: bar
696 ;; R6RS and Guile >= 2.0:
699 This change should not affect correct R5RS programs, or programs written
700 in earlier Guile dialects.
702 ** Macro expansion produces structures instead of s-expressions
704 In the olden days, macroexpanding an s-expression would yield another
705 s-expression. Though the lexical variables were renamed, expansions of
706 core forms like `if' and `begin' were still non-hygienic, as they relied
707 on the toplevel definitions of `if' et al being the conventional ones.
709 The solution is to expand to structures instead of s-expressions. There
710 is an `if' structure, a `begin' structure, a `toplevel-ref' structure,
711 etc. The expander already did this for compilation, producing Tree-IL
712 directly; it has been changed now to do so when expanding for the
715 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
717 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
718 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
721 (define (helper x) ...)
722 (define-macro (foo bar)
725 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
728 (define (helper x) ...)
729 (define-macro (foo bar)
730 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
732 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
736 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
738 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
740 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
747 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
748 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
751 ** Support for settable identifier syntax
753 Following the R6RS, "variable transformers" are settable
754 identifier-syntax. See "Identifier macros" in the manual, for more
757 ** syntax-case treats `_' as a placeholder
759 Following R6RS, a `_' in a syntax-rules or syntax-case pattern matches
760 anything, and binds no pattern variables. Unlike the R6RS, Guile also
761 permits `_' to be in the literals list for a pattern.
763 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
765 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
769 (define-macro (ref x) x)
772 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
773 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
774 macros before code that uses them.
776 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
779 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
781 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
782 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
783 (double-literal 2) => 4
785 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
786 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
787 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
789 (eval-when (load compile eval)
790 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
791 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
792 (double-literal 2) => 4
794 See the documentation for eval-when for more information.
796 ** `macroexpand' produces structures, not S-expressions.
798 Given the need to maintain referential transparency, both lexically and
799 modular, the result of expanding Scheme expressions is no longer itself
800 an s-expression. If you want a human-readable approximation of the
801 result of `macroexpand', call `tree-il->scheme' from `(language
804 ** Removed function: `macroexpand-1'
806 It is unclear how to implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though
807 PLT Scheme does prove that it is possible.
809 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
811 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
812 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
813 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
815 ** Incompatible change to #'
817 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
818 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
819 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
820 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
822 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
824 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
827 ** Prompts: Delimited, composable continuations
829 Guile now has prompts as part of its primitive language. See "Prompts"
830 in the manual, for more information.
832 Expressions entered in at the REPL, or from the command line, are
833 surrounded by a prompt with the default prompt tag.
835 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
836 works (with compiled procedures)
838 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
839 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
840 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
841 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
843 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
844 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
845 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
846 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
847 number of stack frames.
849 ** Backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
850 active in the current continuation
852 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
853 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
854 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
855 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
857 ** New macro: `current-source-location'
859 The macro returns the current source location (to be documented).
861 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
862 through to the expanded code
864 This should result in better backtraces.
866 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
868 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
870 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
872 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
873 default. Use the `(ice-9 curried-definitions)' module to get back the
876 ** New procedure, `define!'
878 `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
879 and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
880 programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
881 less verbose than `module-define!'.
883 ** All modules have names now
885 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
886 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
887 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
888 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
890 ** The module namespace is now separate from the value namespace
892 It was a little-known implementation detail of Guile's module system
893 that it was built on a single hierarchical namespace of values -- that
894 if there was a module named `(foo bar)', then in the module named
895 `(foo)' there was a binding from `bar' to the `(foo bar)' module.
897 This was a neat trick, but presented a number of problems. One problem
898 was that the bindings in a module were not apparent from the module
899 itself; perhaps the `(foo)' module had a private binding for `bar', and
900 then an external contributor defined `(foo bar)'. In the end there can
901 be only one binding, so one of the two will see the wrong thing, and
902 produce an obtuse error of unclear provenance.
904 Also, the public interface of a module was also bound in the value
905 namespace, as `%module-public-interface'. This was a hack from the early
906 days of Guile's modules.
908 Both of these warts have been fixed by the addition of fields in the
909 `module' data type. Access to modules and their interfaces from the
910 value namespace has been deprecated, and all accessors use the new
911 record accessors appropriately.
913 When Guile is built with support for deprecated code, as is the default,
914 the value namespace is still searched for modules and public interfaces,
915 and a deprecation warning is raised as appropriate.
917 Finally, to support lazy loading of modules as one used to be able to do
918 with module binder procedures, Guile now has submodule binders, called
919 if a given submodule is not found. See boot-9.scm for more information.
921 ** New procedures: module-ref-submodule, module-define-submodule,
922 nested-ref-module, nested-define-module!, local-ref-module,
925 These new accessors are like their bare variants, but operate on
926 namespaces instead of values.
928 ** The (app modules) module tree is officially deprecated
930 It used to be that one could access a module named `(foo bar)' via
931 `(nested-ref the-root-module '(app modules foo bar))'. The `(app
932 modules)' bit was a never-used and never-documented abstraction, and has
933 been deprecated. See the following mail for a full discussion:
935 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2010-04/msg00168.html
937 The `%app' binding is also deprecated.
939 ** `module-filename' field and accessor
941 Modules now record the file in which they are defined. This field may be
942 accessed with the new `module-filename' procedure.
944 ** Modules load within a known environment
946 It takes a few procedure calls to define a module, and those procedure
947 calls need to be in scope. Now we ensure that the current module when
948 loading a module is one that has the needed bindings, instead of relying
951 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
953 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
954 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
955 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
957 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
958 values to the expected number
960 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
961 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
962 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
964 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
965 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
966 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
967 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
969 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
970 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
971 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
973 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
976 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
978 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
980 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
981 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
982 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
983 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
984 the interpreter would proceed.
986 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
987 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
988 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
989 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
991 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
993 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
994 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
995 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
996 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
997 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
998 you to contact the Guile developers.
1000 ** Hygienic macros documented as the primary syntactic extension mechanism.
1002 The macro documentation was finally fleshed out with some documentation
1003 on `syntax-rules' and `syntax-case' macros, and other parts of the macro
1004 expansion process. See "Macros" in the manual, for details.
1006 ** psyntax is now the default expander
1008 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
1009 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
1012 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
1013 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
1014 code in question was memoized.
1016 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
1017 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
1018 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
1019 `x432' instead of `x'.
1021 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
1022 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
1023 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
1024 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
1026 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
1028 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
1029 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
1030 `macroexpand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
1033 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
1034 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
1035 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
1036 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
1038 ** Tail patterns in syntax-case
1040 Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
1041 syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
1042 are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
1043 match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
1046 (syntax-rules (else)
1047 ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
1050 Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
1051 tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
1052 patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
1054 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
1055 by nonhygienic macros.
1057 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
1058 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
1061 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
1062 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
1063 (define-macro (ref x)
1065 (bind-x 10 (ref x)))
1070 (define-syntax bind-x
1072 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
1073 (define-macro (ref x)
1075 (bind-x 10 (ref x)))
1077 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
1078 if you have defmacros that expand to hygienic macros, it is possible to
1079 run into situations like this. For example, if you have a defmacro that
1080 generates a `while' expression, the `break' bound by the `while' may not
1081 be visible within other parts of your defmacro. The solution is to port
1082 from defmacros to syntax-rules or syntax-case.
1084 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
1086 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
1087 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
1089 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
1090 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
1093 ** Macros may now have docstrings.
1095 `object-documentation' from `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to
1096 retrieve the docstring, once you have a macro value -- but see the above
1097 note about first-class macros. Docstrings are associated with the syntax
1098 transformer procedures.
1100 ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
1102 The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
1103 `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
1104 to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
1106 ** Procedures may now have more than one arity.
1108 This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
1109 arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
1110 `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
1111 Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
1113 ** Deprecate arity access via (procedure-properties proc 'arity)
1115 Instead of accessing a procedure's arity as a property, use the new
1116 `procedure-minimum-arity' function, which gives the most permissive
1117 arity that the the function has, in the same format as the old arity
1120 ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
1122 As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
1123 compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
1124 Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
1125 without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
1127 ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
1129 `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
1130 will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
1131 output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
1134 There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
1135 print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
1136 documentation for more details.
1138 ** Better pretty-printing
1140 Indentation recognizes more special forms, like `syntax-case', and read
1141 macros like `quote' are printed better.
1143 ** Passing a number as the destination of `format' is deprecated
1145 The `format' procedure in `(ice-9 format)' now emits a deprecation
1146 warning if a number is passed as its first argument.
1148 ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
1150 Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
1151 have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
1152 or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
1153 else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
1154 APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
1155 addressed by element and not by byte.
1157 So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
1158 numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
1159 endianness, as one would expect.
1161 Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
1162 also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
1163 were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
1164 u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
1167 In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
1168 input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
1170 Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
1171 inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
1173 See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
1175 ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
1177 Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
1178 are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
1179 `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
1181 Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
1182 import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
1184 See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
1186 ** New syntax: include-from-path.
1188 `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
1189 the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
1191 ** New syntax: quasisyntax.
1193 `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
1194 documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
1197 ** `*unspecified*' is identifier syntax
1199 `*unspecified*' is no longer a variable, so it is optimized properly by
1200 the compiler, and is not `set!'-able.
1202 ** Unicode characters
1204 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
1205 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
1206 probably be introduced at some point.
1210 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
1211 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
1212 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
1214 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
1215 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
1216 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
1217 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
1221 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
1223 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
1225 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
1226 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
1227 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
1228 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
1229 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
1232 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
1233 code. This use is now discouraged. Binary input and output is
1234 currently supported by opening ports in the ISO-8859-1 locale.
1236 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
1238 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
1239 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
1240 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
1243 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
1244 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
1245 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
1247 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
1249 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
1251 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
1252 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
1253 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
1254 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
1256 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
1258 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
1259 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
1260 Unicode code points.
1262 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
1264 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
1265 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
1266 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
1269 ** EBCDIC support is removed
1271 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
1272 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
1273 and was unmaintained.
1275 ** Compile-time warnings
1277 Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
1278 -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
1279 `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
1280 invocation. Warnings are also enabled by default for expressions entered
1283 Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
1284 procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
1285 `#:warnings' as above.
1287 Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to
1288 warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables, and `-Wformat',
1289 to check for various errors related to the `format' procedure.
1291 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
1293 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
1296 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
1298 This slightly improves program startup times.
1300 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
1302 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
1304 ** New threads are in `(guile-user)' by default, not `(guile)'
1306 It used to be that a new thread entering Guile would do so in the
1307 `(guile)' module, unless this was the first time Guile was initialized,
1308 in which case it was `(guile-user)'. This has been fixed to have all
1309 new threads unknown to Guile default to `(guile-user)'.
1311 ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
1313 As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
1314 special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
1315 associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
1316 underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
1318 This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
1319 dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
1320 implement method combinations.
1322 ** Applicable struct support
1324 One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
1325 To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
1326 That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
1327 that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
1328 `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
1329 `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
1330 `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
1331 the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
1335 GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
1336 but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
1337 never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
1338 were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
1339 replaced by applicable structs, mentioned above.
1341 ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
1343 A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
1344 call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
1345 instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
1346 vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
1348 ** eqv? not a generic
1350 One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
1351 more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
1352 should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
1353 sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
1355 ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
1357 Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
1358 there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
1359 functions are deprecated.
1361 ** New primitive: `tmpfile'.
1363 See "File System" in the manual.
1365 ** Random generator state may be serialized to a datum
1367 `random-state->datum' will serialize a random state to a datum, which
1368 may be written out, read back in later, and revivified using
1369 `datum->random-state'. See "Random" in the manual, for more details.
1371 ** Fix random number generator on 64-bit platforms
1373 There was a nasty bug on 64-bit platforms in which asking for a random
1374 integer with a range between 2**32 and 2**64 caused a segfault. After
1375 many embarrassing iterations, this was fixed.
1377 ** Fast bit operations.
1379 The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
1380 have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
1381 it's for number crunching too.
1383 ** Faster SRFI-9 record access
1385 SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
1386 and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
1387 inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
1388 (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
1390 ** R6RS block comment support
1392 Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
1393 marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
1395 ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
1397 To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
1398 test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
1400 (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
1401 ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
1402 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1404 ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
1405 ;; separate compilation phase.
1406 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1408 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
1410 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
1412 ** New fluid: `%file-port-name-canonicalization'
1414 This fluid parameterizes the file names that are associated with file
1415 ports. If %file-port-name-canonicalization is 'absolute, then file names
1416 are canonicalized to be absolute paths. If it is 'relative, then the
1417 name is canonicalized, but any prefix corresponding to a member of
1418 `%load-path' is stripped off. Otherwise the names are passed through
1421 In addition, the `compile-file' and `compile-and-load' procedures bind
1422 %file-port-name-canonicalization to their `#:canonicalization' keyword
1423 argument, which defaults to 'relative. In this way, one might compile
1424 "../module/ice-9/boot-9.scm", but the path that gets residualized into
1425 the .go is "ice-9/boot-9.scm".
1427 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
1429 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
1431 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
1433 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
1435 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
1437 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
1439 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
1440 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
1441 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
1443 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
1445 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
1446 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
1448 ** New readline history functions
1450 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
1451 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
1452 History library functions.
1454 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
1455 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
1457 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
1460 ** Deprecate the old `scm-style-repl'
1462 The following bindings from boot-9 are now found in `(ice-9
1463 scm-style-repl)': `scm-style-repl', `error-catching-loop',
1464 `error-catching-repl', `bad-throw', `scm-repl-silent'
1465 `assert-repl-silence', `repl-print-unspecified',
1466 `assert-repl-print-unspecified', `scm-repl-verbose',
1467 `assert-repl-verbosity', `scm-repl-prompt', `set-repl-prompt!', `repl',
1468 `default-pre-unwind-handler', `handle-system-error',
1470 The following bindings have been deprecated, with no replacement:
1471 `pre-unwind-handler-dispatch'.
1473 The following bindings have been totally removed:
1474 `before-signal-stack'.
1476 Deprecated forwarding shims have been installed so that users that
1477 expect these bindings in the main namespace will still work, but receive
1478 a deprecation warning.
1480 ** `set-batch-mode?!' replaced by `ensure-batch-mode!'
1482 "Batch mode" is a flag used to tell a program that it is not running
1483 interactively. One usually turns it on after a fork. It may not be
1484 turned off. `ensure-batch-mode!' deprecates the old `set-batch-mode?!',
1485 because it is a better interface, as it can only turn on batch mode, not
1488 ** Deprecate `save-stack', `the-last-stack'
1490 It used to be that the way to debug programs in Guile was to capture the
1491 stack at the time of error, drop back to the REPL, then debug that
1492 stack. But this approach didn't compose, was tricky to get right in the
1493 presence of threads, and was not very powerful.
1495 So `save-stack', `stack-saved?', and `the-last-stack' have been moved to
1496 `(ice-9 save-stack)', with deprecated bindings left in the root module.
1498 ** `top-repl' has its own module
1500 The `top-repl' binding, called with Guile is run interactively, is now
1501 is its own module, `(ice-9 top-repl)'. A deprecated forwarding shim was
1502 left in the default environment.
1504 ** `display-error' takes a frame
1506 The `display-error' / `scm_display_error' helper now takes a frame as an
1507 argument instead of a stack. Stacks are still supported in deprecated
1508 builds. Additionally, `display-error' will again source location
1509 information for the error.
1511 ** No more `(ice-9 debug)'
1513 This module had some debugging helpers that are no longer applicable to
1514 the current debugging model. Importing this module will produce a
1515 deprecation warning. Users should contact bug-guile for support.
1517 ** Remove obsolete debug-options
1519 Removed `breakpoints', `trace', `procnames', `indent', `frames',
1520 `maxdepth', and `debug' debug-options.
1522 ** `backtrace' debug option on by default
1524 Given that Guile 2.0 can always give you a backtrace, backtraces are now
1527 ** `turn-on-debugging' deprecated
1529 ** Remove obsolete print-options
1531 The `source' and `closure-hook' print options are obsolete, and have
1534 ** Remove obsolete read-options
1536 The "elisp-strings" and "elisp-vectors" read options were unused and
1537 obsolete, so they have been removed.
1539 ** Remove eval-options and trap-options
1541 Eval-options and trap-options are obsolete with the new VM and
1544 ** Remove (ice-9 debugger) and (ice-9 debugging)
1546 See "Traps" and "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for information
1547 on their replacements.
1549 ** Remove the GDS Emacs integration
1551 See "Using Guile in Emacs" in the manual, for info on how we think you
1552 should use Guile with Emacs.
1554 ** Deprecated: `lazy-catch'
1556 `lazy-catch' was a form that captured the stack at the point of a
1557 `throw', but the dynamic state at the point of the `catch'. It was a bit
1558 crazy. Please change to use `catch', possibly with a throw-handler, or
1559 `with-throw-handler'.
1561 ** Deprecated `@bind' syntax
1563 `@bind' was part of an older implementation of the Emacs Lisp language,
1564 and is no longer used.
1566 ** Miscellaneous other deprecations
1568 `apply-to-args', `has-suffix?', `scheme-file-suffix'
1569 `get-option', `for-next-option', `display-usage-report',
1570 `transform-usage-lambda', `collect', `set-batch-mode?!',
1572 `cuserid' has been deprecated, as it only returns 8 bytes of a user's
1573 login. Use `(passwd:name (getpwuid (geteuid)))' instead.
1575 ** Add support for unbound fluids
1577 See `make-unbound-fluid', `fluid-unset!', and `fluid-bound?' in the
1580 ** Add `variable-unset!'
1582 See "Variables" in the manual, for more details.
1584 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
1586 * Changes to the C interface
1588 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
1590 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
1591 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
1592 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
1594 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
1595 code easier and less error-prone.
1597 ** New procedures: `scm_to_latin1_stringn', `scm_from_latin1_stringn'
1599 Use these procedures when you know you have latin1-encoded or
1600 ASCII-encoded strings.
1602 ** New procedures: `scm_to_stringn', `scm_from_stringn'
1604 Use these procedures if you want to encode or decode from a particular
1607 ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.
1609 `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
1610 `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
1611 available to C. Have fun!
1613 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
1615 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
1617 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
1620 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
1621 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
1623 ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
1625 From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
1626 odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
1627 SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
1630 ** Remove old evaluator closures
1632 There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
1633 structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
1634 procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
1635 newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
1638 ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
1640 It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
1641 allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
1642 Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
1643 defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
1644 solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
1645 both with the old 1.8 and and with the current 1.9 branch.
1647 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
1648 primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
1649 rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
1650 procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
1651 arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
1652 special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
1654 This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
1655 them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
1656 debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
1657 example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
1658 mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
1660 However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
1661 `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
1662 they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
1663 `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
1664 `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
1665 `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
1667 Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
1668 `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
1669 `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
1670 and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
1673 Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
1674 scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
1677 ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
1679 Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
1680 `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
1681 `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
1682 `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
1683 `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
1685 ** Remove unused snarf macros
1687 `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
1688 are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
1690 ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
1692 `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
1693 `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
1695 ** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
1697 Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
1698 they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
1700 ** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
1702 If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
1703 that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
1704 the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
1705 in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
1706 correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
1709 ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
1711 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
1712 objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
1713 trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
1714 trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
1717 The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
1718 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
1719 `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
1720 deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
1722 ** Removed support shlibs for SRFIs 1, 4, 13, 14, and 60
1724 Though these SRFI support libraries did expose API, they encoded a
1725 strange version string into their library names. That version was never
1726 programmatically exported, so there was no way people could use the
1729 This was a fortunate oversight, as it allows us to remove the need for
1730 extra, needless shared libraries --- the C support code for SRFIs 4, 13,
1731 and 14 was already in core --- and allow us to incrementally return the
1732 SRFI implementation to Scheme.
1734 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
1736 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
1738 ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
1740 It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
1743 ** Inline vector allocation
1745 Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
1746 data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
1747 true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
1748 available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
1751 ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
1753 `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
1754 constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
1758 In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is
1759 no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has
1760 a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API
1761 considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is
1762 in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly.
1764 ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
1766 There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
1767 minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
1768 obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
1769 `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
1770 from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
1771 were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
1775 Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
1776 shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
1777 part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
1778 better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
1780 ** Deprecate trampolines
1782 There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
1783 so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
1784 procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
1785 optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
1786 Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
1788 ** Deprecated `scm_badargsp'
1790 This function is unused in Guile, but was part of its API.
1792 ** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
1794 The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
1795 efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
1796 Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
1797 like scm_is_null_or_nil.
1799 ** Better integration of Lisp `nil'.
1801 `scm_is_boolean', `scm_is_false', and `scm_is_null' all return true now
1802 for Lisp's `nil'. This shouldn't affect any Scheme code at this point,
1803 but when we start to integrate more with Emacs, it is possible that we
1804 break code that assumes that, for example, `(not x)' implies that `x' is
1805 `eq?' to `#f'. This is not a common assumption. Refactoring affected
1806 code to rely on properties instead of identities will improve code
1807 correctness. See "Nil" in the manual, for more details.
1809 ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
1811 Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
1812 much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
1815 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
1816 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
1818 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
1820 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
1821 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
1823 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
1825 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
1826 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
1827 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
1828 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
1830 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
1832 * Changes to the distribution
1834 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
1836 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
1837 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
1842 Guile's build is visually quieter, due to the use of Automake 1.11's
1843 AM_SILENT_RULES. Build as `make V=1' to see all of the output.
1845 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
1847 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
1848 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
1850 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
1852 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
1853 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
1854 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
1857 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
1859 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
1860 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
1862 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
1864 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
1865 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
1867 ** Parallel installability fixes
1869 Guile now installs its header files to a effective-version-specific
1870 directory, and includes the effective version (e.g. 2.0) in the library
1871 name (e.g. libguile-2.0.so).
1873 This change should be transparent to users, who should detect Guile via
1874 the guile.m4 macro, or the guile-2.0.pc pkg-config file. It will allow
1875 parallel installs for multiple versions of Guile development
1878 ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
1880 Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
1881 (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
1882 be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
1883 directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensiondir
1884 guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
1886 ** User Scheme code may be placed in a version-specific path
1888 Before, there was only one way to install user Scheme code to a
1889 version-specific Guile directory: install to Guile's own path,
1890 e.g. /usr/share/guile/2.0. The site directory,
1891 e.g. /usr/share/guile/site, was unversioned. This has been changed to
1892 add a version-specific site directory, e.g. /usr/share/guile/site/2.0,
1893 searched before the global site directory.
1895 ** New dependency: libgc
1897 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
1899 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
1901 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
1902 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
1904 ** New dependency: libffi
1906 See http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information.
1910 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
1914 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
1915 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
1916 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
1919 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
1921 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1923 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
1927 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
1928 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
1929 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
1930 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
1931 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
1932 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
1933 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
1934 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
1935 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
1936 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
1937 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
1939 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
1941 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
1942 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
1943 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
1946 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
1949 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
1951 * New features (see the manual for details)
1953 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
1955 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
1957 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
1958 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
1959 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
1961 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
1963 * Changes to the distribution
1965 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
1967 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
1968 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
1970 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
1972 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
1973 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
1978 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
1979 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
1980 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
1981 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
1982 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
1983 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
1984 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
1985 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
1986 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
1987 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
1988 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
1989 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
1990 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
1991 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
1993 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
1994 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
1995 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
1996 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
1997 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
2000 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
2002 * Infrastructure changes
2004 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
2006 The new repository can be accessed using
2007 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
2008 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
2010 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
2012 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
2014 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2018 * New features (see the manual for details)
2020 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
2021 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
2022 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
2024 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
2025 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
2026 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
2027 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
2029 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
2031 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
2032 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
2033 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
2037 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
2038 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
2040 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
2041 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
2043 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
2044 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
2046 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
2047 lead to a stack overflow.
2049 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
2050 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
2051 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
2052 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
2053 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
2054 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
2055 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
2056 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
2057 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
2058 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
2059 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
2060 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
2061 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
2062 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
2063 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
2064 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
2067 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
2071 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
2072 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
2073 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
2074 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
2075 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
2076 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
2077 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
2078 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
2079 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
2080 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
2081 system and library calls.
2082 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
2083 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
2084 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
2085 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
2086 uniform vectors on AIX.
2087 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
2088 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
2089 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
2090 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
2091 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
2093 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2097 * Documentation fixes and improvements
2099 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
2101 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
2102 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
2104 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
2106 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
2108 * Changes to the distribution
2110 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
2112 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
2113 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
2114 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
2116 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
2118 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
2121 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
2123 * New modules (see the manual for details)
2130 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
2131 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
2132 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
2133 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
2134 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
2135 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
2136 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
2138 * Implementation improvements
2140 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
2141 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
2144 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
2146 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
2148 ** set-program-arguments
2151 * Incompatible changes
2153 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
2155 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
2156 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
2157 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
2158 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
2163 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
2164 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
2165 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
2166 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
2167 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
2168 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
2170 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
2171 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
2172 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
2173 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
2174 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
2175 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
2176 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
2177 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
2178 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
2179 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
2180 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
2181 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
2182 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
2183 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
2184 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
2185 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
2188 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
2190 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
2192 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
2194 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
2195 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
2196 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
2197 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
2198 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
2199 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
2207 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
2209 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
2211 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
2213 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
2215 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
2217 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
2219 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
2220 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
2221 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
2223 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
2225 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
2227 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
2228 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
2230 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
2232 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
2233 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
2235 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
2237 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
2239 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
2241 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
2243 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
2245 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
2247 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
2249 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
2251 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
2253 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
2254 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
2255 file was on a different device.
2258 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
2260 * Changes to the distribution
2262 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
2264 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
2266 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
2268 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
2270 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
2272 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
2275 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
2277 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
2278 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
2279 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
2280 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
2281 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
2282 items like the versioned share directory name
2283 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
2285 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
2286 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
2287 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
2288 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
2289 with each micro release during a stable series.
2291 ** Thread implementation has changed.
2293 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
2294 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
2295 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
2296 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
2297 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
2300 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
2301 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
2302 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
2303 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
2306 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
2307 in which case "null" threads are used.
2309 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
2310 "Blocking", and others.
2312 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
2314 This is a milder form of deprecation.
2316 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
2317 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
2318 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
2319 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
2320 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
2322 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
2323 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
2325 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
2327 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
2328 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
2330 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
2333 This SRFI is always available.
2335 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
2337 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
2338 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
2339 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
2340 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
2343 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
2345 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
2346 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
2347 parameters without currying.
2349 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
2351 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
2352 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
2354 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
2355 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
2358 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
2359 with a renaming import, for example.
2361 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
2363 The official version is good enough now.
2365 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
2367 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
2368 provided. Use 'make html'.
2370 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
2372 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
2373 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
2374 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
2375 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
2377 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
2379 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
2382 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2384 ** New command line option `-L'.
2386 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
2388 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
2390 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
2391 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
2393 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
2395 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
2396 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
2398 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
2400 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
2401 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
2404 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
2407 (define-module (demo)
2411 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
2414 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2416 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
2418 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
2419 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
2420 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
2422 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
2424 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
2425 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
2427 ** New function hashx-remove!
2429 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
2431 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
2432 barriers and dynamic states.
2434 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
2435 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
2436 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
2439 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
2440 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
2441 Barriers" in the manual.
2443 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
2444 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
2446 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
2448 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
2449 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
2450 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
2451 variable %load-path.
2453 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
2455 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
2456 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
2458 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
2459 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
2460 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
2462 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
2463 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
2465 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
2466 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
2467 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
2469 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
2470 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
2471 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
2474 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
2475 substrings and read-only strings.
2477 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
2478 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
2481 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
2483 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
2492 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
2493 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
2494 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
2496 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
2497 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
2498 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
2499 on an ANSI terminal:
2501 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
2502 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
2505 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
2507 See the manual for details.
2509 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
2511 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
2514 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
2516 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
2517 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
2518 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
2519 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
2521 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
2522 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
2523 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
2526 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
2528 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
2529 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
2540 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
2544 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
2549 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
2553 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
2557 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
2560 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
2561 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
2562 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
2563 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
2565 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
2566 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
2569 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
2572 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
2576 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
2578 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
2579 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
2580 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
2583 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
2586 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
2588 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
2591 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
2592 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
2595 (define-module (foo)
2600 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
2601 has been detected is to
2603 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
2604 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
2605 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
2608 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
2611 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
2613 to your .guile init file.
2615 ** New define-module option: :replace
2617 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
2620 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
2621 for the core binding `format'.
2623 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
2625 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
2626 a prefix to all imported bindings.
2628 (define-module (foo)
2629 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
2631 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
2634 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
2636 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
2637 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
2638 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
2640 ** New function: effective-version
2642 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2643 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2644 to the distribution" above.
2646 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
2648 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
2649 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
2651 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
2653 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
2654 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
2656 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
2658 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
2659 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
2662 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
2664 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
2666 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
2668 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
2669 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
2670 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
2673 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
2674 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
2675 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
2676 'system-async-mark'.
2678 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
2679 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
2681 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
2682 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
2683 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
2686 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
2688 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
2689 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
2692 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
2693 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2695 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
2696 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
2697 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
2698 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
2699 level for the current thread.
2701 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
2703 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
2705 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2706 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
2709 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
2711 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
2713 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
2716 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
2718 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
2721 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
2722 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
2723 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
2725 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
2726 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
2727 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
2728 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
2739 ERROR: Numerical overflow
2741 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
2744 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
2746 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
2747 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
2748 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
2759 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
2761 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
2762 them is also done exactly, of course:
2767 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
2768 for exact arguments.
2770 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
2771 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
2773 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
2775 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
2776 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
2777 equal to a floating point number. For example:
2779 (inexact->exact 1.234)
2780 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
2782 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
2784 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
2787 ** New function 'rationalize'.
2789 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
2790 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
2792 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
2795 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
2796 result when both its arguments are exact.
2798 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
2800 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
2801 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
2802 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
2804 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
2806 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
2807 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
2808 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
2810 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
2813 ** pretty-print has more options.
2815 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
2816 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
2817 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
2819 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
2821 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
2822 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
2823 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
2825 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
2827 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
2828 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
2830 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
2832 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
2833 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
2836 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
2838 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
2839 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
2840 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
2841 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
2842 without the soft port blocking.
2844 ** Deprecated: undefine
2846 There is no replacement for undefine.
2848 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
2849 have been discouraged.
2851 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
2852 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
2853 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
2856 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
2858 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
2860 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
2861 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
2862 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
2863 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
2866 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
2867 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
2868 be removed in the next major Guile release.
2870 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
2872 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
2873 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
2874 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
2875 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
2876 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
2877 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
2879 * Changes to the C interface
2881 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
2882 take a 'delete' function argument.
2884 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
2885 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
2887 This is an incompatible change.
2889 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
2891 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
2892 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
2893 --disable-deprecated.
2895 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
2897 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
2898 Scheme values has been added.
2900 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
2901 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
2904 - int scm_is_* (...)
2906 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
2907 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
2909 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
2911 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
2912 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
2915 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
2917 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
2918 scm_from_int for ints.
2920 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
2921 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
2922 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
2924 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
2926 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
2927 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
2928 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
2931 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
2933 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
2935 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
2937 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
2938 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
2939 following alternatives.
2941 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
2942 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
2943 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
2944 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
2946 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
2947 do the validating for you.
2949 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
2950 have been discouraged.
2952 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
2953 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
2956 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
2958 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
2959 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
2962 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
2964 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
2967 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
2970 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
2972 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
2973 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
2975 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
2976 scm_truncate_number should have.
2978 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
2979 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
2981 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
2984 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
2985 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
2986 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
2988 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
2989 easier to use from C.
2991 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
2992 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
2994 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
2995 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
2996 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
2999 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
3000 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
3001 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
3002 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
3005 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
3006 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
3007 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
3008 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
3009 and is thus quite efficient.
3011 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
3013 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
3014 about the character encoding.
3016 Replace according to the following table:
3018 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
3019 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
3020 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
3021 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
3022 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
3023 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
3024 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
3025 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
3026 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
3028 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
3029 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
3031 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
3033 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
3034 now also available to C code.
3036 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
3038 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
3039 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
3040 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
3042 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
3045 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
3047 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
3048 unceremoniously removed.
3050 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
3051 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
3052 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
3054 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
3055 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
3056 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
3057 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
3058 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
3059 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
3062 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
3064 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
3065 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
3066 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
3067 manual for more details.
3069 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
3070 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
3072 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
3073 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
3074 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
3076 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
3078 Migrate according to the following table:
3080 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
3081 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
3082 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
3083 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
3084 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
3085 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
3086 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
3088 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
3089 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
3090 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
3091 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
3092 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
3093 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
3094 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
3096 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
3098 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
3099 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
3101 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
3102 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
3103 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
3104 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
3106 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
3108 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
3109 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
3110 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
3112 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
3113 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
3115 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
3116 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
3117 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
3118 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
3120 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
3122 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
3123 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
3124 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
3125 prevent a potential memory leak:
3132 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
3134 mem = scm_malloc (100);
3135 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
3137 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
3138 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
3145 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
3146 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
3150 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
3152 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
3154 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
3155 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
3156 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
3158 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
3159 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
3161 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
3163 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
3165 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
3166 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
3167 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
3169 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
3170 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
3172 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
3173 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
3174 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
3175 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
3178 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
3180 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
3181 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
3182 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
3184 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
3186 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
3187 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
3189 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
3191 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
3192 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
3194 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
3196 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
3197 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
3198 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
3200 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
3202 You should not have used them.
3204 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
3206 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
3207 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
3209 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
3211 This macro is not intended for public use.
3213 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
3215 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
3217 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
3219 Use scm_is_real instead.
3221 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
3223 Use scm_is_complex instead.
3225 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
3227 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
3228 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
3230 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
3231 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
3233 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
3234 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
3236 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
3238 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
3241 ** New function: scm_effective_version
3243 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
3244 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
3245 to the distribution" above.
3247 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
3249 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
3250 arguments are now passed directly:
3252 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
3254 This is an incompatible change.
3256 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
3258 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
3259 function in the init section.
3261 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
3263 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
3265 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
3266 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
3267 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
3268 stays roughly constant.
3270 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
3271 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
3272 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
3273 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
3274 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
3277 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
3278 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
3279 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
3280 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
3282 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
3283 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
3284 objects for every type.
3287 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
3289 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
3291 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
3293 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
3294 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
3295 initializes a new cell (see below).
3297 ** New functions for memory management
3299 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
3300 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
3301 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
3302 cause aborts in long running programs.
3304 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
3305 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
3307 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
3308 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
3309 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
3310 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
3311 details and for upgrading instructions.
3313 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
3314 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
3315 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
3317 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
3319 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
3320 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
3321 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
3322 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
3323 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
3325 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
3326 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
3327 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
3329 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
3330 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
3332 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
3334 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
3335 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
3336 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
3337 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
3338 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
3340 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
3342 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
3345 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
3347 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
3349 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
3351 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
3352 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
3354 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
3356 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
3357 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
3359 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
3360 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
3362 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
3364 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
3366 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
3367 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
3368 blocking it is not well defined.
3370 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
3372 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
3373 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
3374 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
3375 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
3376 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
3377 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
3378 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
3379 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
3380 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
3381 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
3382 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3383 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
3384 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
3385 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
3386 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
3387 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
3388 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
3389 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3390 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
3391 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
3392 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
3393 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
3394 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
3395 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
3396 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
3397 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
3398 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
3399 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
3400 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
3401 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
3402 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
3404 * Changes to bundled modules
3408 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
3409 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
3410 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
3411 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
3412 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
3415 Changes since Guile 1.4:
3417 * Changes to the distribution
3419 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
3421 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
3423 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
3424 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
3425 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
3426 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
3427 indicate major changes in Guile.
3429 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
3430 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
3431 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
3432 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
3434 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
3435 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
3436 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
3437 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
3438 micro version number.
3440 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
3442 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
3444 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
3445 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
3447 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
3449 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
3450 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
3451 See INSTALL and README for more information.
3453 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
3455 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
3456 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
3457 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
3460 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
3462 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
3465 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
3467 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
3468 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
3470 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
3472 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
3473 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
3476 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
3478 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
3481 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
3484 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
3486 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
3488 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
3489 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
3490 open-output-string, get-output-string.
3492 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
3494 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
3496 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
3499 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
3501 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
3503 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
3505 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
3506 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
3507 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
3509 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
3511 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
3513 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
3514 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
3523 See README there for more info.
3525 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
3526 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
3529 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
3531 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
3533 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
3535 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
3536 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
3537 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
3539 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
3541 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
3542 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
3543 to be named `and-let*', of course.
3545 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
3546 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
3548 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
3551 (oop goops describe)
3553 (oop goops active-slot)
3554 (oop goops composite-slot)
3556 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
3557 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
3558 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
3560 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
3562 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
3563 in the default environment:
3565 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
3566 %read-line write-line
3568 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
3569 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
3571 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
3573 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
3576 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
3577 can be used for similar functionality.
3579 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
3581 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
3582 it defines two procedures:
3584 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3586 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
3587 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3588 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
3591 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3593 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
3594 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3595 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
3596 write large strings.
3598 ** New module (ice-9 match)
3600 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
3601 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
3603 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
3605 for complete documentation.
3607 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
3609 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
3610 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
3611 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
3612 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
3614 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
3615 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
3619 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
3620 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
3621 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
3624 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
3627 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
3628 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
3630 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
3631 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
3634 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
3637 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
3639 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
3641 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3643 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
3645 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
3646 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
3647 Scheme programs easier.
3649 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
3650 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
3651 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
3652 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
3653 `cond-expand' when using this option.
3656 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
3657 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
3659 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
3662 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
3664 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
3665 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
3666 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
3669 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3671 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
3673 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
3674 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
3675 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
3676 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
3677 was also ASCII, for example.
3679 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
3681 tag - no replacement.
3682 fseek - replaced by seek.
3683 list* - replaced by cons*.
3685 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
3689 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
3690 (define m (make-safe-module))
3691 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
3692 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
3693 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
3695 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
3697 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
3698 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
3699 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
3701 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
3703 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
3704 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
3705 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
3706 from the issues related to the module system.
3708 *** New function: load-extension
3710 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
3712 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
3714 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
3715 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
3716 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
3718 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
3720 This function registers a initialization function for use by
3721 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
3722 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
3723 support dynamic linking).
3725 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
3727 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
3728 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
3729 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
3730 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
3733 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
3734 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
3735 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
3736 library and initialize it explicitly.
3738 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
3739 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
3741 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
3743 (define-module (foo bar))
3745 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
3747 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
3749 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
3750 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
3752 (scheme-report-environment 5)
3753 (null-environment 5)
3754 (interaction-environment)
3760 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
3762 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
3763 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
3764 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
3765 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
3767 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
3768 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
3769 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
3770 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
3771 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
3772 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
3773 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
3774 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
3775 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
3776 one eval to the next.
3778 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
3779 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
3780 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
3781 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
3782 subforms are at the top-level as well.
3784 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
3785 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
3786 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
3787 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
3788 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
3789 used in a lexical environment.
3791 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
3792 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
3793 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
3794 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
3795 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
3796 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
3798 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
3800 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
3801 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
3802 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
3803 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
3804 new facilities: selection and renaming.
3806 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
3807 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
3808 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
3810 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
3811 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
3813 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
3814 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
3815 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3817 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3818 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
3820 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
3821 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
3822 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
3823 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
3826 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3827 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
3828 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
3829 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3831 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3832 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3833 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
3835 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3836 ;; and all four by upcasing.
3837 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
3838 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
3839 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
3841 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3843 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3844 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3845 :renamer upcase-symbol))
3847 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
3848 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
3849 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
3851 See manual for more info.
3853 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
3855 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
3856 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
3857 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
3859 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
3861 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
3862 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
3863 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
3865 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
3866 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
3867 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
3868 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
3870 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
3872 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
3873 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
3875 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
3876 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
3877 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
3878 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
3879 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
3882 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
3883 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
3884 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
3885 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
3886 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
3887 successful and #f if it wasn't.
3889 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
3890 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
3891 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
3892 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
3893 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
3895 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
3896 objects are usually permanent.
3898 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
3899 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
3901 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
3903 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
3904 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
3907 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
3911 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
3916 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
3918 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
3919 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
3920 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
3921 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
3923 ** New function `make-object-property'
3925 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
3926 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
3930 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
3931 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
3935 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
3936 source properties eventually.
3938 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
3940 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
3941 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
3942 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
3944 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
3945 will be removed in the next release.
3947 ** New define-module option: pure
3949 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
3954 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
3957 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
3959 Export names NAME1 ...
3961 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
3962 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
3966 (define-module (foo)
3968 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
3971 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
3976 ** New function: object->string OBJ
3978 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
3980 ** New function: port? X
3982 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
3983 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
3985 ** New function: file-port?
3987 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
3989 ** New function: port-for-each proc
3991 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
3992 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
3993 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
3994 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
3995 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
3997 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
3999 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
4000 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
4001 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
4002 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
4003 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
4006 ** New function: close-fdes fd
4008 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
4009 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
4010 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
4011 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
4014 ** New function: crypt password salt
4016 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
4019 ** New function: chroot path
4021 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
4023 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
4025 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
4028 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
4030 Get or set the priority of the running process.
4032 ** New function: getpass prompt
4034 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
4037 ** New function: flock file operation
4039 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
4041 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
4043 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
4046 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
4048 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
4049 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
4050 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
4051 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
4052 of the temporary file.
4054 ** New function: open-input-string string
4056 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
4057 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
4058 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
4060 ** New function: open-output-string
4062 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
4063 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
4065 ** New function: get-output-string
4067 Return the contents of an output string port.
4069 ** New function: identity
4071 Return the argument.
4073 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
4074 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
4076 ** New function: inet-pton family address
4078 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
4079 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
4080 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
4083 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
4084 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
4086 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
4088 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
4089 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
4090 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
4093 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
4094 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
4095 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
4099 Use `identity' instead.
4105 ** Deprecated: return-it
4109 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
4111 Use `string-length' instead.
4113 ** Deprecated: flags
4115 Use `logior' instead.
4117 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
4119 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
4120 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
4121 port-for-each is more flexible.
4123 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
4124 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
4125 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
4127 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
4129 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
4131 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
4133 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
4135 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
4137 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
4138 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
4140 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
4141 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
4143 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
4144 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
4146 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
4148 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
4149 Removed function: builtin-bindings
4151 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
4152 Use module system operations for all variables.
4154 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
4156 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
4159 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
4161 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
4162 The following bugs have been fixed:
4164 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
4165 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
4168 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
4169 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
4170 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
4172 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
4173 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
4175 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
4176 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
4179 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
4180 The expansion used to be like so:
4182 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
4184 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
4186 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
4188 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
4189 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
4191 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
4193 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
4194 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
4195 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
4199 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
4200 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
4202 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
4207 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
4208 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
4210 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
4211 and `d', other keywords allowed.
4212 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
4214 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
4217 * Changes to the C interface
4219 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
4221 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
4222 with "_t". What a concept.
4224 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
4226 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
4228 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
4232 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
4233 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
4235 *** C Functions removed
4237 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
4238 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
4239 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
4240 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
4241 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
4242 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
4243 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
4245 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
4247 Use scm_mem2string instead.
4249 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
4251 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
4253 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
4254 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
4256 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
4258 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
4261 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
4263 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
4265 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
4267 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
4268 Evaluation" in the manual.
4270 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
4272 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
4273 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
4275 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
4277 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
4278 Constructors" in the manual.
4280 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
4282 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
4283 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
4285 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
4287 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
4289 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
4290 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
4291 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
4293 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4295 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
4297 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
4298 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
4299 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
4302 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4304 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
4306 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
4307 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
4309 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
4311 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
4312 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
4313 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
4314 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
4316 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
4317 scm_primitive_property_ref
4318 scm_primitive_property_set_x
4319 scm_primitive_property_del_x
4321 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
4322 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
4324 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
4326 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
4327 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
4328 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
4329 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
4331 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
4333 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
4334 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
4335 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
4336 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
4337 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
4338 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
4339 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
4341 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
4342 scm_remember_upto_here
4344 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
4346 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
4348 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
4349 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
4351 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
4353 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
4355 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
4357 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
4359 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
4361 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
4362 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
4363 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
4364 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
4365 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
4366 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
4368 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
4370 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4372 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
4373 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4374 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
4376 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
4378 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
4379 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4380 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
4382 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
4384 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
4385 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
4388 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
4391 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
4392 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
4395 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4397 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
4399 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
4401 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4403 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
4405 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
4407 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
4408 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
4409 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
4410 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
4411 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
4412 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
4413 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
4414 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
4415 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
4416 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
4417 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
4418 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
4419 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
4420 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
4421 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
4423 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
4424 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
4425 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
4426 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
4427 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
4428 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
4429 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
4430 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
4431 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4432 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
4433 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
4434 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
4435 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
4436 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
4437 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
4438 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4439 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4440 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
4441 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
4442 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
4443 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
4444 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
4445 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
4446 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
4447 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
4448 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
4449 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
4450 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
4451 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
4453 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
4455 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
4457 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
4458 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
4460 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
4462 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
4464 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
4466 Use scm_string_hash instead.
4468 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
4470 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
4472 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
4474 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
4476 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
4479 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
4480 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
4482 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
4484 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
4486 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
4488 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
4490 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
4492 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
4494 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
4496 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
4499 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
4501 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
4503 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
4505 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
4506 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
4508 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
4509 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
4511 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
4513 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
4514 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
4515 scm_module_define, scm_define.
4517 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
4519 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
4521 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
4522 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
4524 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
4525 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
4526 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
4527 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
4529 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
4530 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
4531 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
4533 Use the new ones from above instead.
4535 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
4537 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
4538 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
4539 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
4541 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
4542 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
4544 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
4545 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
4548 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
4549 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
4551 Use the new functions instead.
4553 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
4556 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
4558 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
4560 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
4563 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
4565 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
4568 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
4570 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
4573 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
4574 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
4575 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
4577 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
4579 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
4580 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
4582 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
4583 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
4584 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
4585 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
4588 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
4590 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
4591 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
4592 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
4593 inexact for an exact.
4595 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
4596 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
4597 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
4600 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
4601 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
4602 accept an inexact argument.
4604 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
4605 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
4607 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
4610 ** New number validation macros:
4611 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
4615 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
4617 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
4618 scm_unprotect_object.
4620 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
4622 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
4624 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
4627 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
4629 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
4633 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
4635 * Changes to the distribution
4637 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
4639 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
4640 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
4641 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
4642 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
4643 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
4644 obtain these programs.
4645 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
4646 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
4648 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
4649 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
4650 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
4651 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
4652 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
4654 However, this approach means that minor differences between
4655 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
4656 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
4657 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
4661 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
4664 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
4665 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
4666 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
4667 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
4669 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
4671 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
4673 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
4674 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
4676 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
4677 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
4679 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
4680 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
4682 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
4683 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
4684 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
4685 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
4687 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
4689 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
4693 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
4694 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
4696 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
4698 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
4699 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
4701 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
4702 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
4703 number of objects of that kind.
4705 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
4707 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
4708 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
4709 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
4710 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
4711 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
4713 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
4715 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
4717 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
4719 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
4722 ** New module (ice-9 time)
4724 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
4726 ** New module (ice-9 history)
4728 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
4730 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4732 ** New command line option --debug
4734 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
4736 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
4738 ** New help facility
4740 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
4741 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
4742 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
4743 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
4744 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
4745 (help) gives this text
4747 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
4748 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
4750 Examples: (help help)
4752 (help "output-string")
4754 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
4756 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
4758 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
4759 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
4762 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
4763 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
4764 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
4767 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
4768 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
4769 use absolute filenames when possible.
4771 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
4772 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
4773 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
4776 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
4778 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
4779 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
4780 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
4781 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
4783 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
4785 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
4787 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
4788 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
4789 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
4791 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
4792 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
4793 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
4795 (read-enable 'positions)
4796 (debug-enable 'debug)
4798 ** Backtraces in scripts
4800 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
4804 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
4806 at the top of the script.
4808 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
4809 The second enables backtraces.)
4811 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
4813 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
4814 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
4815 substantially faster than before.
4817 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
4818 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
4820 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
4821 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
4823 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
4825 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
4826 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
4827 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
4829 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
4830 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
4831 when this hook is run in the future.
4833 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
4834 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
4836 ** Improvements to garbage collector
4838 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
4839 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
4842 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
4843 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
4844 more and more memory for certain programs.)
4846 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
4847 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
4849 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
4850 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
4852 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
4853 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
4854 in order not to need further allocation.)
4856 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
4859 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
4860 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
4861 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
4862 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
4864 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
4866 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
4869 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
4871 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
4874 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
4875 GC in percent of total heap size
4878 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
4879 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
4881 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
4883 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
4884 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
4886 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
4888 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
4889 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
4891 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
4893 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
4894 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
4898 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
4899 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
4901 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
4903 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4905 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
4907 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
4909 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
4911 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
4912 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
4914 (simple-format port message . args)
4915 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
4916 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
4917 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
4918 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
4919 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
4920 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
4921 Does not add a trailing newline."
4923 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
4925 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
4926 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
4928 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
4929 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
4931 ** Deprecated: list*
4933 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
4935 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
4937 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
4938 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
4940 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
4941 is returned as result.
4943 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
4945 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
4947 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
4949 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
4950 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
4953 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
4955 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
4957 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
4958 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
4960 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4962 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
4964 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
4966 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4968 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
4970 Thanks to Greg Badros!
4972 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4974 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4975 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
4976 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
4978 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
4981 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
4983 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
4984 the readability of argument checking.
4986 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
4988 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
4990 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
4992 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
4993 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
4994 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
4995 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
4996 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
4997 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
4998 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
5000 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
5002 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
5004 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
5005 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
5007 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
5009 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
5010 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
5013 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
5015 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
5016 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
5017 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
5019 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
5020 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
5021 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
5023 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
5024 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
5025 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
5026 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
5027 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
5028 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
5029 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
5031 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
5032 scm_end_input (object);
5033 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
5034 ptob->flush (object);
5036 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
5037 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
5040 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
5042 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
5044 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
5045 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
5046 removed in a future version.
5048 ** The format of error message strings has changed
5050 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
5051 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
5052 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
5053 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
5055 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
5056 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
5058 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
5061 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
5063 in your configure.in.
5065 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
5070 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
5076 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
5078 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
5082 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
5083 (define make-message string-append)
5085 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
5087 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
5091 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
5096 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
5100 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
5102 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
5103 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
5105 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
5107 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
5108 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
5109 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
5110 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
5111 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
5112 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
5114 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
5115 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
5116 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
5118 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
5119 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
5120 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
5123 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
5124 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
5125 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
5126 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
5127 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
5129 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
5130 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
5131 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
5132 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
5133 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
5134 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
5135 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
5137 Destructors are not yet implemented.
5139 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
5140 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
5141 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
5143 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
5144 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
5145 KEY in the calling thread.
5147 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
5148 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
5149 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
5150 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
5151 associated with the key.
5153 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
5155 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
5156 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
5158 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
5160 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
5161 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
5162 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
5164 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
5166 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
5167 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
5169 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
5171 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
5173 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
5174 returned is undefined.
5176 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
5177 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
5178 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
5180 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
5181 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
5182 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
5184 ** New C level GC hooks
5186 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
5188 scm_before_gc_c_hook
5191 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
5192 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
5193 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
5195 scm_before_mark_c_hook
5196 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
5197 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
5199 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
5200 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
5203 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
5205 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
5206 allocation parameters
5208 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
5209 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
5210 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
5214 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
5215 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
5216 scm_default_max_segment_size
5218 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
5220 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
5221 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
5223 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
5225 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
5226 object and count on the object being protected until
5227 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
5229 The functions also have better time complexity.
5231 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
5232 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
5233 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
5234 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
5235 are no longer needed.
5237 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
5239 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
5240 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
5241 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
5242 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
5244 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
5246 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
5248 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
5250 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
5251 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
5252 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
5253 until this issue has been settled.
5255 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
5257 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
5259 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
5262 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
5264 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5266 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
5267 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
5268 descriptors were checked.
5270 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
5271 atomically written to a pipe.
5273 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
5274 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
5275 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
5276 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
5277 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
5278 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
5279 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
5282 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
5283 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
5284 is changed without calling tzset.
5286 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
5288 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
5289 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
5290 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
5292 (define write-network-long
5293 (lambda (value port)
5294 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5295 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
5296 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
5298 (define read-network-long
5300 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5301 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
5302 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
5304 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
5305 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
5307 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
5308 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
5309 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
5310 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
5312 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
5313 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
5314 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
5315 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
5319 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
5321 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5325 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
5326 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
5327 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
5333 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
5334 for a description of available commands.
5336 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
5337 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
5338 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
5340 (debug-enable 'backwards)
5342 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
5343 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
5345 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
5347 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
5349 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
5350 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
5351 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
5352 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
5353 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
5354 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
5357 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
5359 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
5360 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
5361 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
5362 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
5364 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
5365 the file and should not be affected by this change.
5367 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
5369 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5371 ** Readline support has changed again.
5373 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
5374 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
5375 to activate readline is now
5377 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
5380 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
5382 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
5383 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
5384 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
5387 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
5388 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
5389 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
5392 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
5393 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
5394 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
5395 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
5396 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
5397 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
5399 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
5400 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
5402 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
5404 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
5405 object it receives is the same string passed to
5406 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
5407 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
5408 string, not the suffix.
5410 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
5411 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
5412 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
5414 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
5416 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
5417 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
5418 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
5419 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
5422 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5424 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
5426 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
5427 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
5428 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
5429 appear from left to right.
5431 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
5434 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
5436 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
5437 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
5439 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5443 *** New function: hook? OBJ
5445 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
5447 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
5449 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
5450 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
5451 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
5453 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
5455 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
5457 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
5459 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
5462 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
5464 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
5465 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
5466 mentioning it here anyway.
5468 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
5470 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
5471 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
5472 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
5473 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
5476 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
5478 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
5480 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
5482 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
5483 otherwise return #f.
5485 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
5487 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
5488 returned by `opendir'.
5490 ** New function: using-readline?
5492 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
5494 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5496 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
5497 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5499 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5501 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5503 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
5504 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
5505 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5507 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
5509 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
5510 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
5512 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
5514 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
5515 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
5516 documentation slots are not yet used.
5518 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
5520 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
5521 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
5522 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
5527 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
5528 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
5529 (string-append x y))
5531 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
5532 can also be used for concatenating strings.
5534 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
5535 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
5536 be made in a clean way.]
5538 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
5540 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5542 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5544 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
5545 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
5547 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5549 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
5551 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5553 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5555 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
5556 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
5557 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
5558 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
5561 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5563 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
5565 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5567 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5569 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
5570 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
5572 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5574 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
5576 Evaluates the body of a special form.
5578 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
5580 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
5581 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
5582 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
5583 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
5584 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
5585 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
5587 This should not make any difference for most users.
5589 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
5591 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
5592 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
5594 *** New functions for applying generic functions
5596 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
5597 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
5598 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
5599 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
5600 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
5602 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
5604 It is now replaced by:
5606 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
5608 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
5609 binds a variable named NAME to it.
5611 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
5613 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
5614 This might change when we get the new module system.
5616 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
5620 Changes since Guile 1.3:
5622 * Changes to mailing lists
5624 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
5626 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
5629 * Changes to the distribution
5631 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
5633 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
5634 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
5635 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
5636 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
5637 you explicitly specify it.
5639 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
5640 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
5641 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
5642 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
5643 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
5646 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
5647 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
5648 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
5649 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
5651 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
5652 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
5653 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
5656 You can activate the readline support by issuing
5658 (use-modules (readline-activator))
5661 from your ".guile" file, for example.
5663 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5665 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
5666 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
5667 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
5668 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
5670 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
5671 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
5674 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5676 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
5677 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
5678 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
5679 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
5680 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
5681 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
5682 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
5683 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
5695 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
5696 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
5697 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
5698 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
5699 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
5704 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
5705 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
5713 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
5718 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
5719 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
5722 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
5723 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
5724 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
5725 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
5727 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
5729 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
5731 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
5732 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
5734 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
5736 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
5738 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
5739 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
5741 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
5744 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
5746 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
5748 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
5750 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
5752 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
5754 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
5756 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
5757 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
5758 when the hook was created.
5760 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
5761 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
5762 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
5763 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
5764 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
5765 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
5766 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
5767 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
5768 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
5770 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
5771 the dlopen family of functions.
5773 ** New function `provided?'
5775 - Function: provided? FEATURE
5776 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
5777 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
5778 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
5780 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
5782 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
5783 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
5784 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
5785 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5788 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5789 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
5790 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
5791 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
5793 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
5794 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
5795 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
5798 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
5799 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
5800 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
5801 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
5802 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
5803 but with the flag set.
5805 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
5807 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
5808 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
5810 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
5811 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
5812 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
5813 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
5814 available Scheme format implementations.
5816 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
5817 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
5818 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
5819 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
5820 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
5821 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
5822 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
5823 output is to the current error port if available by the
5824 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
5827 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
5828 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
5829 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
5830 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
5831 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
5832 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
5833 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
5834 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
5836 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
5837 be executed at a time.
5840 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
5842 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
5843 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
5844 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
5846 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
5847 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
5848 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
5849 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
5850 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
5851 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
5852 general form of a directive is:
5854 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
5856 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
5858 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5860 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
5861 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
5862 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
5865 Any (print as `display' does).
5869 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
5873 S-expression (print as `write' does).
5877 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
5883 print number sign always.
5886 print comma separated.
5888 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
5894 print number sign always.
5897 print comma separated.
5899 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
5905 print number sign always.
5908 print comma separated.
5910 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
5916 print number sign always.
5919 print comma separated.
5921 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
5926 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
5930 print a number as a Roman numeral.
5933 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
5936 print a number as an ordinal English number.
5939 print a number as a cardinal English number.
5944 prints `y' and `ies'.
5947 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5950 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5955 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
5959 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
5962 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
5963 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
5965 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5968 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
5969 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
5971 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5974 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
5976 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
5978 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5981 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
5983 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
5985 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5988 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
5991 The sign appears before the padding.
5999 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
6001 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
6006 print N page separators.
6016 newline is ignored, white space left.
6019 newline is left, white space ignored.
6024 relative tabulation.
6030 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
6032 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
6035 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
6037 converts by `string-capitalize'.
6040 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
6043 converts by `string-upcase'.
6046 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
6048 jumps N arguments forward.
6051 jumps 1 argument backward.
6054 jumps N arguments backward.
6057 jumps to the 0th argument.
6060 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
6062 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
6063 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
6065 take argument from N.
6068 true test conditional.
6071 if-else-then conditional.
6077 default clause follows.
6080 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
6082 at most N iterations.
6085 args from next arg (a list of lists).
6088 args from the rest of arguments.
6091 args from the rest args (lists).
6102 aborts if N <= M <= K
6104 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
6107 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
6110 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
6116 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
6118 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
6120 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
6121 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
6122 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
6123 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
6124 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
6125 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
6129 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
6133 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
6139 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
6142 Print a `#\space' character
6144 print N `#\space' characters.
6147 Print a `#\tab' character
6149 print N `#\tab' characters.
6152 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
6153 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
6154 must be a positive decimal number.
6157 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
6158 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
6159 be processed by `read'.
6162 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
6163 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
6164 be processed by `read'.
6167 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
6170 prints format version.
6173 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
6174 and format it accordingly.
6176 *** Configuration Variables
6178 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
6179 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
6180 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
6181 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
6184 format:symbol-case-conv
6185 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
6186 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
6187 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
6188 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
6189 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
6191 format:iobj-case-conv
6192 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
6193 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
6196 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
6199 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
6205 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
6206 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
6207 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
6208 `format' padding style.
6211 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
6212 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
6213 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
6214 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
6218 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
6219 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
6220 directive parameters or modifiers)).
6223 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
6224 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
6225 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
6226 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
6227 parameters or modifiers)).
6230 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
6232 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
6234 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
6235 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
6237 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
6238 string-downcase! functions.
6240 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
6241 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
6243 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
6246 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
6249 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
6250 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
6252 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
6254 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
6255 the symbol had be read by `read'.
6257 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
6258 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
6259 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
6260 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
6261 would if STRING were input.
6263 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
6265 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
6266 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
6267 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
6268 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
6271 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
6273 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
6274 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
6277 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
6279 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
6280 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
6282 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
6283 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
6285 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
6286 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
6287 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
6288 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
6290 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
6291 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
6293 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
6294 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
6295 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
6297 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
6298 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
6300 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
6301 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
6302 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
6303 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
6304 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
6306 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
6307 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
6308 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
6309 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
6310 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
6311 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
6313 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
6314 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
6315 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
6318 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
6319 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
6320 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
6321 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
6322 the following grammar:
6323 ((apples (single-char #\a))
6324 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
6325 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
6326 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
6327 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
6328 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
6329 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
6330 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
6331 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
6332 last option in its combination)
6334 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
6335 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
6336 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
6337 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
6339 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
6340 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
6341 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
6343 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6344 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6345 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
6347 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
6348 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
6349 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
6350 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
6351 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
6352 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
6353 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
6354 ordinary argument strings.
6356 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
6357 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
6358 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
6359 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
6361 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
6362 as a list, associated with the empty list.
6364 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
6365 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
6366 - a required option is omitted
6367 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
6368 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
6369 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
6370 - an option predicate fails
6375 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
6378 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
6379 (verbose (required? #f)
6382 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
6383 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
6384 (predicate ,string?))))
6386 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
6387 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6389 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6390 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
6391 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
6392 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
6395 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
6397 It will be removed in a few releases.
6399 ** New syntax: lambda*
6400 ** New syntax: define*
6401 ** New syntax: define*-public
6402 ** New syntax: defmacro*
6403 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
6404 Guile now supports optional arguments.
6406 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
6407 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
6408 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
6409 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
6410 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
6412 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
6413 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
6414 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
6416 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
6418 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
6419 and examples for `lambda*':
6422 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
6424 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
6425 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
6426 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
6427 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
6428 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
6429 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
6430 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
6431 can be checked with the bound? macro.
6433 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
6435 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
6436 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
6437 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
6438 are given as keywords are bound to values.
6440 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
6441 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
6442 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
6443 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
6444 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
6445 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
6446 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
6447 and until the procedure is called.
6449 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
6451 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
6452 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
6453 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
6454 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
6455 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
6456 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
6457 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
6458 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
6459 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
6460 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
6462 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
6463 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
6464 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
6465 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
6468 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
6470 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
6471 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
6472 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
6473 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
6475 ** New syntax: and-let*
6476 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
6478 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
6479 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
6480 (<variable> <expression>)
6483 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
6484 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
6485 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
6488 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
6489 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
6490 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
6491 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
6492 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
6493 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
6494 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
6496 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
6497 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
6498 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
6499 shadow earlier bindings.
6501 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
6503 ** New sorting functions
6505 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
6506 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
6507 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
6508 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
6510 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
6511 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
6514 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6515 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
6516 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
6518 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
6519 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
6520 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
6521 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
6523 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6524 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
6525 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
6526 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
6527 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
6530 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6531 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
6532 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
6533 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
6534 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
6535 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
6537 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
6538 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
6539 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
6541 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6542 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
6543 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
6546 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
6547 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
6548 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
6550 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
6551 Added for compatibility with scsh.
6553 ** New built-in random number support
6555 *** New function: random N [STATE]
6556 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
6557 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
6558 returned have a uniform distribution.
6560 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
6561 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
6562 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
6563 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
6564 effect of the `random' operation.
6566 *** New variable: *random-state*
6567 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
6568 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
6569 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
6570 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
6571 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
6574 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
6575 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6576 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6577 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
6578 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
6580 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
6581 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6582 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6583 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
6584 initialized using SEED.
6586 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
6587 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
6588 range between 0 and 1.
6590 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6591 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
6592 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
6593 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
6594 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
6595 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
6596 or a uniform vector of doubles.
6598 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6599 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
6600 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
6601 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
6602 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
6603 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6605 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
6606 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
6607 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
6608 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
6610 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
6611 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
6612 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
6613 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6615 *** New function: random:exp STATE
6616 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
6617 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
6619 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
6621 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
6624 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
6625 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
6628 ** New function: make-guardian
6629 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
6630 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
6631 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
6632 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
6633 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
6635 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
6636 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
6637 one object if at all.
6639 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
6640 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
6641 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
6643 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
6644 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
6645 read again in last-in first-out order.
6647 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
6648 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
6650 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
6652 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
6653 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
6654 file position is used.
6656 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
6657 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
6658 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
6660 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
6661 redefined using seek.
6663 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
6664 size is not supplied.
6666 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
6667 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
6669 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
6670 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
6672 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
6674 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
6675 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
6676 and returns the contents as a single string.
6678 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
6679 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
6680 lists in serial order.
6682 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
6683 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
6684 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
6686 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
6687 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
6688 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
6689 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
6691 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
6692 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
6693 and #f if an error occured.
6695 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
6697 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
6698 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
6699 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
6700 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
6702 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
6704 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
6707 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
6709 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
6712 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6716 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
6717 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
6719 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
6720 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
6724 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6726 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
6728 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
6729 binds a variable named NAME to it.
6731 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
6733 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
6734 might change when we get the new module system.
6736 ** The smob interface
6738 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
6739 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
6741 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
6743 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
6747 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
6748 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
6749 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
6750 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
6751 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
6752 will be freed by the default free function.
6754 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6755 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
6756 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6757 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6759 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6760 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
6761 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6762 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6764 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
6766 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
6767 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
6771 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
6772 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6773 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6775 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
6776 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
6777 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6778 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6780 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
6781 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
6782 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
6784 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
6785 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
6786 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
6787 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
6789 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
6790 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
6791 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
6793 *** scm_newptob has been removed
6797 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
6799 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
6800 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
6801 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
6803 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
6804 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
6805 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
6807 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
6808 a string port's buffer.
6810 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
6811 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
6812 function pointers which together define the current random number
6813 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
6814 number library functions.
6816 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
6819 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
6820 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
6823 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
6824 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6826 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
6827 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
6829 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
6830 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
6833 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
6834 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
6835 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
6836 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
6838 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
6839 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
6840 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
6841 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
6842 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
6843 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
6844 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
6846 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
6847 by libguile and the application.
6849 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6850 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6851 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
6852 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
6854 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
6855 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
6857 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6858 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
6859 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
6861 ** Random number library functions
6862 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
6863 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
6864 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
6866 The default random state is stored in:
6868 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
6869 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
6870 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
6875 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
6877 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
6878 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
6879 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
6880 isn't a random state.
6882 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
6883 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
6885 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
6886 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
6887 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
6888 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
6890 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6891 Return 32 random bits.
6893 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6894 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
6896 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6897 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
6899 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6900 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
6902 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
6903 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6905 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
6906 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6907 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
6911 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
6913 * Changes to the distribution
6915 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
6916 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
6917 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
6920 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
6921 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
6922 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
6924 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
6925 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
6926 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
6927 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
6930 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
6931 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
6932 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
6934 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6936 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
6938 *** Function: batch-mode?
6940 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
6943 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
6945 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
6946 case has not been implemented.
6948 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
6949 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
6950 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
6953 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
6954 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
6956 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
6958 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6960 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
6962 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
6963 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
6966 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
6967 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
6968 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
6969 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
6972 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
6974 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
6975 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
6976 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
6977 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
6978 find those libraries.
6980 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
6981 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
6984 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
6986 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
6987 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
6988 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
6989 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
6991 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
6992 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
6993 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
6997 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
6999 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
7000 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
7001 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
7004 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
7005 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
7006 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
7007 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
7009 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
7010 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
7013 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
7014 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
7015 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
7016 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
7017 compiler where to find the libraries.
7019 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
7020 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
7021 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
7023 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
7024 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
7025 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
7026 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
7027 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
7031 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7033 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
7034 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
7035 internationalization support.
7037 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
7038 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
7039 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
7040 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
7041 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
7043 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
7044 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
7045 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
7046 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
7047 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
7049 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
7050 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
7051 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
7052 any GNU mirror site.
7054 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
7056 ** New function: add-history STRING
7057 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
7058 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
7059 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
7061 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
7063 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
7064 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
7065 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
7068 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
7069 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
7070 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
7072 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
7074 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
7077 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
7078 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
7081 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
7082 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
7083 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
7084 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
7085 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
7086 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
7088 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
7089 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
7090 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
7091 of the form mentioned above.
7093 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
7094 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
7095 returned in the special `rest' list.
7097 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
7098 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
7100 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
7102 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
7104 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
7106 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
7107 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
7108 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
7109 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
7110 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
7111 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
7112 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
7113 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
7116 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
7118 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
7120 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
7121 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
7124 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
7125 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
7126 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
7130 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
7131 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
7132 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
7133 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
7134 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
7135 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
7136 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
7137 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
7140 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
7142 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
7143 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
7144 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
7146 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
7148 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
7149 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
7151 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
7152 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
7153 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
7155 Why do we have this function?
7156 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
7157 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
7158 primitive, and display it differently, and
7159 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
7160 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
7163 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
7164 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
7167 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
7168 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
7169 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
7170 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
7172 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
7173 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
7176 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
7177 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
7179 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
7181 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
7182 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
7183 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
7184 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
7185 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
7186 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
7187 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
7190 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
7192 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
7193 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
7195 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
7196 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
7197 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
7198 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
7199 properly continue the print chain.
7201 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
7202 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
7203 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
7204 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
7205 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
7206 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
7207 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
7208 print-state, it is simply ignored.
7210 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
7211 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
7212 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
7213 safest to not check for these pairs.
7215 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
7216 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
7217 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
7218 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
7220 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
7222 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
7223 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
7225 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
7227 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
7229 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
7230 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
7231 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
7233 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
7234 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
7235 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
7237 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
7238 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
7239 the following functions and macros:
7241 Function: make-fluid
7243 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
7244 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
7245 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
7246 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
7247 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
7249 Function: fluid? OBJ
7251 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
7253 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
7254 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
7256 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
7257 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
7259 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
7261 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
7262 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
7263 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
7264 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
7265 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
7266 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
7267 modified by `with-fluids*'.
7269 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
7271 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
7272 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
7273 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
7274 should evaluate to a fluid.
7276 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
7278 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
7279 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
7280 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
7281 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
7282 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
7284 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
7287 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
7289 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
7291 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
7293 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
7296 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
7297 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
7298 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
7299 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
7300 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
7303 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
7304 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
7305 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
7307 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
7308 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
7309 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
7311 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
7312 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
7313 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7314 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
7316 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
7317 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
7318 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7319 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
7321 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
7322 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
7323 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
7324 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
7326 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
7327 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
7328 their revealed counts set to zero.
7330 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7331 Returns an integer file descriptor.
7333 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7334 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
7336 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7337 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
7339 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7340 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
7341 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
7343 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
7344 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
7345 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
7347 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
7348 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
7349 default environment inherited by child processes.
7351 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
7352 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
7353 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
7355 The return value is unspecified.
7357 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
7358 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
7359 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
7360 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
7361 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
7363 The return value is unspecified.
7365 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
7366 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
7374 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
7375 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
7378 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
7381 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
7382 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
7383 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
7385 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
7386 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
7387 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
7388 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
7391 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
7392 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
7394 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
7395 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
7396 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
7397 the `environ' procedure.
7399 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
7400 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
7403 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
7404 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
7406 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
7407 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
7408 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
7409 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
7411 *** procedure: times
7412 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
7413 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
7414 return a selected component:
7417 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
7421 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
7424 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
7428 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
7429 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
7433 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
7434 terminated child processes.
7436 ** Removed: list-length
7437 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
7438 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
7440 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
7442 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
7444 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
7446 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
7447 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
7448 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
7449 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
7451 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
7452 extra complexity it introduces.
7454 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
7455 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
7457 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
7458 variable to any non-empty value.
7460 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
7461 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
7463 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7465 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
7466 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
7468 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
7470 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
7471 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
7473 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
7475 ** vector handling routines
7477 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
7478 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
7479 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
7480 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
7481 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
7483 ** pair and list routines
7485 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
7488 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
7490 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
7493 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7495 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
7497 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
7498 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
7499 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
7500 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
7501 site-specific initialization code.
7503 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
7504 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
7505 initialization processes.
7507 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
7508 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
7509 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
7510 initialized properly.
7512 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
7513 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
7514 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
7516 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
7517 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
7518 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
7519 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
7520 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
7522 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
7524 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
7525 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
7526 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
7527 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
7528 objects the smob refers to get marked.
7530 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
7531 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
7532 which look like this:
7535 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
7537 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
7538 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
7541 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
7542 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
7545 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
7547 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
7548 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
7549 you will need to change your functions slightly.
7551 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
7552 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
7553 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
7554 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
7555 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
7557 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
7558 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
7560 int (*free) (SCM port);
7561 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
7562 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
7563 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
7567 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
7568 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
7569 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
7571 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
7574 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
7575 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
7576 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
7578 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
7579 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
7580 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
7583 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
7587 struct timeval *timeout);
7589 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
7590 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
7591 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
7592 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
7593 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
7594 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
7596 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
7597 scm_catch_body_t body,
7599 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7602 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
7603 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
7604 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
7605 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
7606 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
7607 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
7609 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
7611 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7614 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
7615 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
7616 spawning threads from application C code.
7618 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
7619 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
7620 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
7621 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
7622 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
7623 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
7625 ** Removed functions:
7627 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
7628 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
7630 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
7632 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
7633 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
7635 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
7637 ** mbstrings are now removed
7639 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
7640 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
7642 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
7644 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
7645 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
7646 their new names and arguments:
7648 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
7649 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
7650 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
7651 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
7654 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
7656 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
7658 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
7661 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
7663 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
7664 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
7665 pass a #f arg to catch.
7667 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
7669 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
7670 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
7673 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
7674 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
7675 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
7676 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
7677 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
7678 reclaim its storage.
7680 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
7681 worrying that some other function you call will call
7682 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
7683 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
7684 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
7685 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
7688 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
7690 * Changes to the distribution
7692 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
7693 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
7696 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
7697 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
7699 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7700 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7702 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
7704 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
7705 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
7706 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
7708 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7710 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
7711 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
7712 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
7713 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
7714 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
7715 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
7717 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
7718 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
7719 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
7722 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
7723 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
7724 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
7725 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
7727 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
7728 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
7729 libraries to your link command:
7731 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
7732 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
7733 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7734 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7736 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
7737 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
7738 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
7740 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7742 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
7743 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
7746 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
7748 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
7749 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
7750 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
7751 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
7752 searched is system dependent.
7754 (dynamic-object? VAL)
7756 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
7758 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
7760 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
7761 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
7763 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7765 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
7766 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
7767 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
7768 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
7769 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
7772 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7774 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
7775 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
7776 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
7777 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
7778 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
7780 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
7782 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
7783 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
7785 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
7787 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
7788 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
7789 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
7792 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
7794 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
7795 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
7796 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
7797 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
7799 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
7800 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
7802 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
7804 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
7805 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
7807 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
7809 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
7810 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
7818 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
7820 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
7821 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
7822 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
7823 a more informative way.
7825 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
7826 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
7827 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
7828 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
7829 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
7830 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
7832 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
7833 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
7836 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
7837 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
7838 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
7841 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
7842 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
7843 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
7844 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
7845 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
7846 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
7848 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
7849 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
7850 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
7851 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
7854 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
7855 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
7856 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
7857 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
7858 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
7859 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
7861 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
7862 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
7863 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
7864 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
7865 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
7867 *** regexp functions
7869 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
7870 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
7871 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
7873 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
7874 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
7875 with SCSH regular expressions.
7877 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
7878 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
7879 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
7880 position of STR at which to begin matching.
7882 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
7883 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
7884 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
7885 `string-match' returns `#f'.
7887 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
7888 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
7889 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
7890 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
7891 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
7892 match strings against the compiled regexp.
7894 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
7895 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
7896 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
7897 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
7898 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
7900 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7902 **** Constant: regexp/extended
7903 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
7904 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
7905 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
7907 **** Constant: regexp/icase
7908 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
7909 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
7911 **** Constant: regexp/newline
7912 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
7914 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
7917 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
7918 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7919 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
7921 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
7922 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7923 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
7925 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
7926 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
7927 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
7928 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
7929 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
7932 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7934 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
7935 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
7936 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
7937 used when different portions of a string are passed to
7938 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
7939 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
7941 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
7942 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
7943 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
7945 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
7946 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
7949 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
7950 and replace them with the contents of another string.
7952 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
7953 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
7954 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
7955 may be one of the following arguments:
7957 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
7959 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
7961 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
7962 the regexp match is written.
7964 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
7965 following the regexp match is written.
7967 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
7968 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
7971 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
7972 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
7973 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
7974 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
7975 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
7976 which should be matched against this regular expression.
7978 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
7981 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
7982 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
7983 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
7984 written out to PORT.
7986 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
7987 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
7988 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
7989 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
7990 will return after processing a single match.
7992 *** Match Structures
7994 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
7995 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
7996 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
7997 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
7998 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
7999 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
8002 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
8003 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
8004 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
8005 information about the original target string that was matched against a
8006 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
8008 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
8009 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
8010 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
8012 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
8013 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
8014 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
8015 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
8016 number N did not match, return `#f'.
8018 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
8019 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
8021 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
8022 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
8024 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
8025 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
8027 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
8028 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
8030 **** Function: match:count MATCH
8031 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
8032 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
8033 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
8035 **** Function: match:string MATCH
8036 Return the original TARGET string.
8038 *** Backslash Escapes
8040 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
8041 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
8042 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
8043 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
8044 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
8045 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
8047 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
8048 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
8049 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
8050 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
8051 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
8052 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
8053 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
8054 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
8056 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
8057 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
8058 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
8059 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
8060 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
8061 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
8062 each match a single backslash in the target string.
8064 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
8065 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
8066 return the resulting string.
8068 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
8069 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
8070 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
8071 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
8072 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
8073 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
8074 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
8075 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
8076 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
8077 translated to the single character `*'.
8079 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
8080 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
8081 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
8082 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
8083 consecutive backslashes:
8085 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
8087 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
8088 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
8089 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
8091 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
8092 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
8093 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
8094 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
8095 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
8096 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
8098 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
8100 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
8101 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
8102 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
8103 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
8104 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
8105 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
8106 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
8107 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
8108 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
8109 cumbersome escape syntax.
8111 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8113 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8115 * Changes to system call interfaces:
8117 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
8120 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
8122 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
8124 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
8127 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
8128 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
8129 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
8130 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
8131 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
8133 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
8134 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
8135 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
8136 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
8137 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
8138 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
8139 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
8142 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
8143 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
8144 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
8147 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
8148 `force-output' on every port open for output.
8150 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
8151 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
8152 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
8153 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
8154 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
8155 installed, you can say:
8157 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
8160 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8162 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
8163 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
8164 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
8165 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
8166 new dynamic roots and threads.
8169 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
8171 * Changes to the distribution.
8173 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
8175 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
8176 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
8177 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
8178 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
8179 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
8180 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
8181 programming language. These are packaged together because the
8182 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
8184 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
8187 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
8188 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
8193 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
8195 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
8196 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
8198 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
8199 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
8200 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
8201 the (command-line) function.
8202 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
8203 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
8204 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
8206 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
8207 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
8208 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
8209 command line arguments
8210 -ds do -s script at this point
8211 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
8212 -h, --help display this help and exit
8213 -v, --version display version information and exit
8214 \ read arguments from following script lines
8216 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
8217 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
8219 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8222 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8226 (main (command-line))
8228 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
8230 ekko a speckled gecko
8232 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
8233 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
8234 following list of command-line arguments:
8236 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
8238 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
8239 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
8240 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
8241 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
8242 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8244 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
8246 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
8248 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
8249 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
8252 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
8253 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
8254 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
8255 SCSH) for circumventing them.
8257 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
8258 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
8259 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
8260 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
8262 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
8266 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8270 If the user invokes this script as follows:
8272 ekko a speckled gecko
8274 Unix expands this into
8276 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
8278 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
8279 read from the second line of the script, producing:
8281 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8283 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
8284 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8286 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
8287 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
8288 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
8289 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
8290 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
8291 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
8292 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
8293 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
8294 it only terminates the argument list.)
8295 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
8296 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
8297 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
8298 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
8299 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
8300 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
8301 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
8302 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
8304 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
8306 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
8307 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
8308 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
8309 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
8310 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
8312 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
8313 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
8314 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
8316 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
8318 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
8319 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
8320 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
8321 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
8324 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
8325 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
8326 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
8328 * Changes to Scheme functions
8330 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
8331 and disabled by default.
8333 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
8334 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
8335 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
8336 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
8338 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
8340 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
8342 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
8343 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
8345 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
8346 (read-set! keywords #f)
8348 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
8349 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
8350 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
8353 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
8354 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
8355 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
8358 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
8359 support for Scheme functions.
8361 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8362 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
8363 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
8364 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
8367 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8368 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
8369 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
8372 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
8373 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
8374 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
8377 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
8378 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
8379 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
8380 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
8381 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
8382 display the result as a prompt.
8383 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
8385 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
8386 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
8387 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
8390 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
8391 procedure of zero arguments.
8393 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
8394 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
8395 argument is bound in the current module.
8397 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
8398 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
8399 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
8400 public bindings into the current module.
8402 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
8403 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
8405 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
8406 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
8408 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
8409 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
8411 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
8412 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
8414 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
8415 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
8417 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
8418 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
8419 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
8420 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
8421 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
8423 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
8424 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
8425 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
8426 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
8428 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
8431 ** Changes to I/O functions
8433 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
8434 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
8435 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
8437 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
8438 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
8439 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
8441 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
8442 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
8444 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
8445 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
8446 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
8447 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
8449 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
8451 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
8452 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
8454 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
8455 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
8456 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
8457 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
8458 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
8461 'trim omit delimiter from result
8462 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
8463 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
8464 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
8466 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
8468 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
8469 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
8471 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
8472 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
8473 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
8474 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
8475 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
8477 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
8478 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
8479 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
8481 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
8482 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
8483 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
8484 above, and defaults to 'peek.
8486 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
8487 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8489 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
8490 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
8492 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
8494 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
8495 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
8496 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
8497 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
8498 a delimiting character.
8499 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
8501 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
8502 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
8503 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
8504 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
8505 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
8506 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
8508 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
8509 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8511 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
8512 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
8513 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
8515 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
8516 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
8517 the array to read and write.
8519 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
8520 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
8523 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
8525 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
8528 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
8529 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
8530 Values for COMMAND are:
8532 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
8533 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
8534 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
8535 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
8536 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
8537 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
8538 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
8539 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
8541 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
8543 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
8544 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
8545 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
8546 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
8547 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
8548 corresponding return set will be the same.
8550 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
8553 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
8554 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
8555 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
8556 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
8557 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
8558 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
8559 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
8560 special file being created.
8562 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
8563 clashing with various SCSH forks.
8565 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
8566 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
8567 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
8568 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
8569 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
8570 and originating address.
8572 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
8573 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
8574 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
8576 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
8579 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
8580 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
8583 (status:exit-val STATUS)
8584 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
8585 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
8586 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
8587 this function returns #f.
8589 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
8590 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
8591 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
8594 (status:term-sig STATUS)
8595 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
8596 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
8599 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
8600 a valid STATUS value.
8602 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
8604 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
8605 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
8607 Component Accessor Setter
8608 ========================= ============ ============
8609 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
8610 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
8611 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
8612 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
8613 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
8614 year tm:year set-tm:year
8615 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
8616 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
8617 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
8618 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
8619 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
8621 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
8622 describing the host system:
8625 ============================================== ================
8626 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
8627 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
8628 release level of the operating system utsname:release
8629 version level of the operating system utsname:version
8630 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
8632 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
8633 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
8634 system's user database:
8637 ====================== =================
8638 user name passwd:name
8639 user password passwd:passwd
8642 real name passwd:gecos
8643 home directory passwd:dir
8644 shell program passwd:shell
8646 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
8647 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
8648 system's group database:
8651 ======================= ============
8652 group name group:name
8653 group password group:passwd
8655 group members group:mem
8657 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
8658 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
8662 ========================= ===============
8663 official name of host hostent:name
8664 alias list hostent:aliases
8665 host address type hostent:addrtype
8666 length of address hostent:length
8667 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
8669 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
8670 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
8674 ========================= ===============
8675 official name of net netent:name
8676 alias list netent:aliases
8677 net number type netent:addrtype
8678 net number netent:net
8680 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
8681 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
8685 ========================= ===============
8686 official protocol name protoent:name
8687 alias list protoent:aliases
8688 protocol number protoent:proto
8690 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
8691 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
8695 ========================= ===============
8696 official service name servent:name
8697 alias list servent:aliases
8698 port number servent:port
8699 protocol to use servent:proto
8701 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
8702 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
8705 ======================================== ===============
8706 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
8707 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
8708 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
8709 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
8711 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
8712 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
8713 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
8715 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
8716 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
8718 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
8719 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
8721 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
8722 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
8724 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
8726 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
8728 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
8729 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
8730 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
8732 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
8733 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
8734 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
8735 return the remaining characters as a string.
8737 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
8738 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
8739 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
8741 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
8743 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8745 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
8748 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
8751 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
8752 and returns the array
8754 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
8755 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
8756 the user to interpret the data both ways.
8758 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8760 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
8761 symbol's value from C code:
8763 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
8764 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
8765 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
8766 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
8768 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
8769 without assigning them a value.
8771 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
8772 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
8773 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
8775 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
8776 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
8777 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
8779 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
8780 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
8782 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
8783 doesn't actually care about that.
8785 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
8786 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
8787 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
8789 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
8790 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
8791 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
8792 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
8793 which we have just created and initialized.
8795 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
8796 should one occur. We call it like this:
8797 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
8799 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
8800 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
8801 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
8802 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
8803 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
8804 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
8807 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
8808 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
8809 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
8810 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
8811 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
8812 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
8813 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
8816 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
8817 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
8818 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
8819 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
8820 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
8823 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
8824 scm_internal_catch, except:
8826 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
8827 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
8828 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
8829 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
8832 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
8833 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
8834 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
8836 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
8837 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
8838 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
8839 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
8842 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
8843 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
8844 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
8846 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
8847 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
8848 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
8849 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
8850 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
8852 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
8853 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
8854 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
8856 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
8857 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
8858 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
8860 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
8861 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
8863 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
8864 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
8865 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
8868 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
8869 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
8870 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
8871 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
8872 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
8873 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
8874 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
8877 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
8878 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
8880 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
8881 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
8882 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
8883 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
8884 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
8887 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
8888 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
8890 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
8891 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
8894 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
8895 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
8897 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8900 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
8901 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
8902 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
8903 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
8904 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
8905 given the following arguments:
8907 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8909 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
8911 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
8913 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8916 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
8917 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
8918 command-line arguments.
8920 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
8921 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
8922 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
8923 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
8924 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
8925 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
8928 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8931 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
8932 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
8934 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
8935 rearranged slightly. They are now:
8937 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8938 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8939 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
8940 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
8942 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8943 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8945 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8946 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
8947 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8948 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
8950 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8951 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8953 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
8954 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
8956 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
8958 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
8959 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
8960 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
8963 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
8964 returns a port instead of an FD object.
8966 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
8967 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
8972 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
8975 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
8977 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
8978 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
8979 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
8980 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
8982 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
8984 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
8986 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
8987 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
8988 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
8989 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
8990 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
8991 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
8992 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
8993 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
8994 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
8995 for more information.
8997 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
8998 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
9000 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
9001 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
9002 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
9003 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
9004 following two lines at the top of the file:
9006 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
9009 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
9010 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
9011 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
9013 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
9015 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
9017 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
9020 (display (car args))
9021 (if (pair? (cdr args))
9023 (loop (cdr args)))))
9026 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
9027 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
9028 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
9029 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
9030 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
9031 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
9035 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
9038 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
9041 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
9043 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
9044 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
9045 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
9046 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
9047 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
9050 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
9051 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
9052 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
9053 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
9054 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
9057 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
9060 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
9061 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
9062 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
9065 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
9066 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
9067 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
9069 to see a backtrace, and
9070 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
9071 to see them by default.
9075 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
9077 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
9079 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
9080 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
9083 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
9084 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
9085 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
9086 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
9089 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
9090 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
9091 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
9092 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
9093 functions which inspired them.
9095 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
9096 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
9100 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
9102 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
9104 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
9105 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
9108 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
9109 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
9110 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
9112 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
9113 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
9114 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
9115 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
9116 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
9118 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
9120 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
9121 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
9122 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
9125 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
9128 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
9130 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
9131 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
9132 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
9133 above should serve their purposes.
9135 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
9136 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
9137 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
9138 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
9140 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
9143 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
9144 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
9145 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
9146 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
9148 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
9149 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
9150 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
9151 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
9153 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
9154 for the `read' function.
9157 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
9158 to that of `integer?'.
9160 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
9161 use the R4RS names for these functions.
9163 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
9164 it simply returns the object's property list.
9166 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
9167 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
9168 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
9169 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
9171 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
9173 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
9176 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
9178 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
9179 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
9181 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
9183 void (*main_func) (),
9186 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
9187 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
9188 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
9189 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
9190 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
9192 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
9193 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
9194 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
9195 know which arguments have been processed.
9197 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
9198 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
9199 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
9200 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
9201 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
9203 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
9204 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
9205 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
9206 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
9207 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
9208 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
9209 people from making that mistake.
9211 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
9212 convenient ways to override these when desired.
9214 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
9216 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
9220 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
9223 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
9224 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
9225 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
9226 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
9229 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
9230 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
9231 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
9232 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
9235 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
9236 have been added to the Guile library.
9238 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
9239 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
9240 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
9243 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
9244 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
9245 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
9247 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
9248 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
9249 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
9250 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
9251 argument from the list.
9254 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
9257 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
9258 null-terminated string, and returns it.
9260 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
9261 to a Scheme port object.
9263 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
9264 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
9269 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
9271 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
9272 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
9273 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
9274 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
9275 code as a special datatype.
9277 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
9278 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
9279 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
9280 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
9281 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
9284 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
9285 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
9286 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
9287 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
9288 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
9290 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
9293 Copyright information:
9295 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
9297 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
9298 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
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