1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Each release reports the NEWS in the following sections:
9 * Changes to the distribution
10 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
11 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
12 * Changes to the C interface
15 Changes since the 1.6.x series:
17 * Changes to the distribution
19 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
21 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
23 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
25 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
27 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
29 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
32 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
34 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
35 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
36 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
37 so the current effective-version is "1.7". The effective version
38 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
39 items like the versioned share directory name
40 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.7.
42 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
43 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
44 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
45 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
46 with each micro release during a stable series.
48 ** Thread implementation has changed.
50 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
51 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
52 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
53 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
54 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
57 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
58 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
59 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
60 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
61 the GC. See the manual for details. [XXX - write this.]
63 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
64 in which case "null" threads are used.
66 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
68 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when
69 you don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but
70 where you have some section(s) of code which you consider can run
71 in parallel to other sections.
73 ### move rest to manual
75 They "flag" (with dynamic extent) sections of code to be of
76 "serial" or "parallel" nature and have the single effect of
77 preventing a serial section from being run in parallel with any
78 serial section (including itself).
80 Both serialize and parallelize can be nested. If so, the
81 inner-most construct is in effect.
83 NOTE 1: A serial section can run in parallel with a parallel
86 NOTE 2: If a serial section S is "interrupted" by a parallel
87 section P in the following manner: S = S1 P S2, S2 is not
88 guaranteed to be resumed by the same thread that previously
91 WARNING: Spawning new threads within a serial section have
92 undefined effects. It is OK, though, to spawn threads in unflagged
93 sections of code where neither serialize or parallelize is in
96 A typical usage is when Guile is used as scripting language in some
97 application doing heavy computations. If each thread is
98 encapsulated with a serialize form, you can then put a parallelize
99 form around the code performing the heavy computations (typically a
100 C code primitive), enabling the computations to run in parallel
101 while the scripting code runs single-threadedly.
103 ** New module (srfi srfi-26)
105 This is an implementation of SRFI-26.
107 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
109 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
110 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
112 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13) and (srfi srfi-14) have been merged with
113 the core, making their functionality always available.
115 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
116 with a renaming import, for example.
118 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
120 The official version is good enough now.
122 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
124 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
125 provided. Use 'make html'.
127 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
129 ** New command line option `-L'.
131 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
133 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
135 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
136 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
138 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
140 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
141 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
143 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
145 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
146 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
149 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
152 (define-module (demo)
156 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
159 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
161 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
162 substrings and read-only strings.
164 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
165 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
168 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
170 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
179 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
180 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
181 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
183 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
184 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
185 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
188 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
189 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
192 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
194 See the manual for details.
196 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
198 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
201 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
203 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
204 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
205 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
206 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
208 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
209 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
210 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
213 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
215 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
216 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
227 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
231 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
236 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
240 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
244 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
246 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
247 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
248 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
251 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
254 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
256 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
259 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
260 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
268 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
269 has been detected is to
271 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
272 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
273 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
276 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
279 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
281 to your .guile init file.
283 ### move rest to manual
285 The syntax for the :duplicates option is:
287 :duplicates HANDLER-NAME | (HANDLER1-NAME HANDLER2-NAME ...)
289 Specifying multiple handlers is useful since some handlers (such as
290 replace) can defer conflict resolution to others. Each handler is
291 tried until a binding is selected.
293 Currently available duplicates handlers are:
295 check report an error for bindings with a common name
296 warn issue a warning for bindings with a common name
297 replace replace bindings which have an imported replacement
298 warn-override-core issue a warning for imports which override core bindings
299 and accept the override
300 first select the first encountered binding (override)
301 last select the last encountered binding (override)
303 These two are provided by the (oop goops) module:
305 merge-generics merge generic functions with a common name
306 into an <extended-generic>
307 merge-accessors merge accessors with a common name
309 The default duplicates handler is:
311 (replace warn-override-core warn last)
313 A recommended handler (which is likely to correspond to future Guile
314 behavior) can be installed with:
316 (default-duplicate-binding-handler '(replace warn-override-core check))
318 ** New define-module option: :replace
320 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
323 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
324 for the core binding `format'.
326 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
328 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
329 a prefix to all imported bindings.
332 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
334 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
337 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
339 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
340 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
341 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
343 ### move the rest to the manual
345 It is sometimes tempting to use GOOPS accessors with short names.
346 For example, it is tempting to use the name `x' for the x-coordinate
349 Assume that we work with a graphical package which needs to use two
350 independent vector packages for 2D and 3D vectors respectively. If
351 both packages export `x' we will encounter a name collision.
353 This can now be resolved automagically with the duplicates handler
354 `merge-generics' which gives the module system license to merge all
355 generic functions sharing a common name:
357 (define-module (math 2D-vectors)
358 :use-module (oop goops)
361 (define-module (math 3D-vectors)
362 :use-module (oop goops)
365 (define-module (my-module)
366 :use-module (math 2D-vectors)
367 :use-module (math 3D-vectors)
368 :duplicates merge-generics)
370 x in (my-module) will now share methods with x in both imported
373 There will, in fact, now be three distinct generic functions named
374 `x': x in (2D-vectors), x in (3D-vectors), and x in (my-module). The
375 last function will be an <extended-generic>, extending the previous
378 Let's call the imported generic functions the "ancestor functions". x
379 in (my-module) is, in turn, a "descendant function" of the imported
380 functions, extending its ancestors.
382 For any generic function G, the applicable methods are selected from
383 the union of the methods of the descendant functions, the methods of G
384 itself and the methods of the ancestor functions.
386 This, ancestor functions share methods with their descendants and vice
387 versa. This implies that x in (math 2D-vectors) can will share the
388 methods of x in (my-module) and vice versa, while x in (math 2D-vectors)
389 doesn't share the methods of x in (math 3D-vectors), thus preserving
392 Sharing is dynamic, so that adding new methods to a descendant implies
393 adding it to the ancestor.
395 If duplicates checking is desired in the above example, the following
396 form of the :duplicates option can be used instead:
398 :duplicates (merge-generics check)
400 ** New function: effective-version
402 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
403 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
404 to the distribution" above.
406 ** New feature, 'futures': future, make-future, future-ref
408 Futures are like promises, but begin execution immediately in a new
409 thread. See the "Futures" section in the reference manual.
411 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
413 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
414 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
416 ** Fair mutexes and condition variables
418 Fair mutexes and condition variables have been added. The fairness
419 means that scheduling is arranged to give as equal time shares as
420 possible and that threads are awakened in a first-in-first-out
421 manner. This is not guaranteed with standard mutexes and condition
424 In addition, fair mutexes are recursive. Locking a fair mutex that
425 you have already locked will succeed. Every call to lock-mutex must
426 be matched with a call to unlock-mutex. Only the last call to
427 unlock-mutex will actually unlock the mutex.
429 A fair condition variable must be used together with a fair mutex,
430 just as a standard condition variable must be used together with a
433 *** New functions: make-fair-mutex, make-fair-condition-variable'
435 Make a new fair mutex and a new fair condition variable respectively.
437 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
439 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
440 instead if blocking and indicate failure.
442 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
444 The funtion 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
445 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
448 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
450 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
452 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
454 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
455 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
456 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
459 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
460 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
461 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
464 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
465 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
467 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
469 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
470 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
473 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
474 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
476 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
477 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
478 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
479 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
480 level for the current thread.
482 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
484 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
486 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
487 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
490 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
492 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
494 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
497 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
499 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
502 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
503 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
504 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
506 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
507 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
508 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
509 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
520 ERROR: Numerical overflow
522 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
525 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
527 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
528 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
529 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
540 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
542 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
543 them is also done exactly, of course:
548 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
551 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
552 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
554 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
556 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
557 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
558 equal to a floating point number. For example:
560 (inexact->exact 1.234)
561 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
563 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitely:
565 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
568 ** New function 'rationalize'.
570 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
571 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
573 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
576 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
577 result when both its arguments are exact.
579 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
581 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
582 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
583 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
585 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
587 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
588 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
589 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
591 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
594 ** pretty-print has more options.
596 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
597 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
598 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
600 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
602 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
603 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
604 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
606 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
608 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
609 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
611 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
613 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
614 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
617 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
619 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
620 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
621 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
622 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
623 without the soft port blocking.
625 ** New debugging feature: breakpoints.
627 Guile now has breakpoints. For details see the `Debugging Features'
628 chapter in the reference manual.
630 ** Deprecated: undefine
632 There is no replacement for undefine.
634 * The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
635 have been discouraged.
637 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
638 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
639 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
642 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
645 * Changes to the C interface
647 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
649 This is a milder form of deprecation.
651 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
652 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
653 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
654 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
655 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
657 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
658 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
660 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
661 Scheme values has been added.
663 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
664 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
669 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
670 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
672 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
674 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
675 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
678 - SCM scm_from_<type>) (<type> val, ...)
680 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
681 scm_from_int for ints.
683 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
684 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
685 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
687 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
689 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
690 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
691 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
694 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
696 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
698 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
700 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
701 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
702 following alternatives.
704 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
705 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
706 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
707 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
709 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
710 do the validating for you.
712 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
713 have been discouraged.
715 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
716 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
719 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
721 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
722 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
725 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
727 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
730 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
733 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
735 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
736 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
738 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
739 scm_truncate_number should have.
741 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
742 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
744 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
747 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
748 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
749 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
751 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
752 easier to use from C.
754 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
755 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
757 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
758 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
759 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
762 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
763 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
764 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
765 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
768 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
769 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
770 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
771 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
772 and is thus quite efficient.
774 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
776 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
777 about the character encoding.
779 Replace according to the following table:
781 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
782 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
783 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
784 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
785 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
786 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
787 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
788 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
789 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
791 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
792 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
794 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
796 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
797 now also available to C code.
799 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
801 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
802 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
803 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
805 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
807 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
808 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
810 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
811 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
812 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
813 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
815 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
817 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
818 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
819 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
821 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
822 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
824 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
825 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
826 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
827 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
829 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
831 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
832 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
833 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
834 prevent a potential memory leak:
843 mem = scm_malloc (100);
844 scm_frame_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY);
846 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
847 SCM_FRAME_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
854 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY, MEM will be freed by
855 SCM_FRAME_END as well.
859 For full documentation, see the node "Frames" in the manual.
861 ** New function scm_frame_free
863 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a frame is left.
864 Thus the call to scm_frame_unwind_handler above could be replaced with
865 simply scm_frame_free (mem).
867 ** New way to block and unblock asyncs
869 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
870 scm_frame_block_asyncs in a 'frame' (see above). Likewise for
871 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_frame_unblock_asyncs.
873 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
875 C code can now use scm_frame_current_<foo>_port in a 'frame' (see
876 above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
878 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
880 C code can now use scm_frame_fluid in a 'frame' (see
881 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
883 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
885 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
886 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
887 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
889 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
891 You should not have used them.
893 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
895 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
896 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
898 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
900 This macro is not intended for public use.
902 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
904 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
906 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
908 Use scm_is_real instead.
910 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
912 Use scm_is_complex instead.
914 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
916 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
917 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
919 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
920 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
922 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
923 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
925 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
927 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
930 ** New function: scm_effective_version
932 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
933 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
934 to the distribution" above.
936 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
938 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
939 arguments are now passed directly:
941 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
943 This is an incompatible change.
945 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
947 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
948 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
949 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
951 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
952 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
954 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
956 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
958 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
959 function in the init section.
961 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
963 ** New macros SCM_VECTOR_REF and SCM_VECTOR_SET.
965 Use these in preference to SCM_VELTS.
967 ** The SCM_VELTS macros now returns a read-only vector. For writing,
968 use the new macros SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS or SCM_VECTOR_SET. The use of
969 SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS is discouraged, though.
971 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
973 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
974 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
975 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
976 stays roughly constant.
978 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
979 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
980 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
981 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
982 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
985 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
986 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
987 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
988 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
990 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
992 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
994 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
996 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
997 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
998 initializes a new cell (see below).
1000 ** New functions for memory management
1002 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1003 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1004 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1005 cause aborts in long running programs.
1007 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1008 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1010 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1011 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1012 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1013 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1014 details and for upgrading instructions.
1016 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1017 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1018 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1020 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1022 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1023 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1024 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1025 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1026 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1028 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1029 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1030 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1032 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1033 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1035 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1037 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1038 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1039 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1040 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1041 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1043 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1045 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1048 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1050 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1052 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1054 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1055 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1057 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1059 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1060 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1062 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1064 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1065 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1066 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1067 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1068 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1069 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1070 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1071 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1072 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1073 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1074 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1075 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1076 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1077 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1078 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1079 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1080 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1081 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1082 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1083 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1084 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1085 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1086 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1087 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1088 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1089 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1090 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1091 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1092 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1093 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1094 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1097 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1099 * Changes to the distribution
1101 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1103 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1105 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1106 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1107 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1108 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1109 indicate major changes in Guile.
1111 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1112 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1113 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1114 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1116 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1117 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1118 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1119 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1120 micro version number.
1122 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1124 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1126 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1127 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1129 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1131 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1132 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1133 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1135 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1137 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1138 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1139 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1142 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1144 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1147 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1149 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1150 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1152 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1154 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1155 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1158 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1160 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1163 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1166 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1168 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1170 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1171 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1172 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1174 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1176 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1178 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1181 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1183 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1185 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1187 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1188 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1189 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1191 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1193 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1195 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1196 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1205 See README there for more info.
1207 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1208 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1211 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1213 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1215 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1217 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1218 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1219 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1221 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1223 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1224 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1225 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1227 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1228 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1230 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1233 (oop goops describe)
1235 (oop goops active-slot)
1236 (oop goops composite-slot)
1238 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1239 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1240 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1242 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1244 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1245 in the default environment:
1247 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1248 %read-line write-line
1250 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1251 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1253 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1255 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1258 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1259 can be used for similar functionality.
1261 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1263 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1264 it defines two procedures:
1266 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1268 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1269 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1270 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1273 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1275 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1276 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1277 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1278 write large strings.
1280 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1282 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1283 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1285 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1287 for complete documentation.
1289 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1291 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1292 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1293 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1294 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1296 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1297 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1301 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1302 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1303 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1306 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1309 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1310 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1312 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1313 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1316 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1319 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1321 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1323 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1325 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1327 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1328 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1329 Scheme programs easier.
1331 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1332 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1333 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1334 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1335 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1338 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1339 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1341 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1344 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1346 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1347 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1348 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1351 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1353 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1355 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1356 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1357 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1358 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1359 was also ASCII, for example.
1361 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1363 tag - no replacement.
1364 fseek - replaced by seek.
1365 list* - replaced by cons*.
1367 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1371 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1372 (define m (make-safe-module))
1373 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1374 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1375 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1377 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1379 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1380 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1381 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1383 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1385 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1386 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1387 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1388 from the issues related to the module system.
1390 *** New function: load-extension
1392 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1394 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1396 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1397 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1398 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1400 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1402 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1403 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1404 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1405 support dynamic linking).
1407 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1409 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1410 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1411 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1412 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1415 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1416 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1417 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1418 library and initialize it explicitely.
1420 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1421 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1423 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1425 (define-module (foo bar))
1427 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1429 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1431 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1432 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1434 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1435 (null-environment 5)
1436 (interaction-environment)
1442 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1444 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1445 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1446 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1447 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1449 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1450 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1451 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1452 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1453 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1454 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1455 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1456 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1457 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1458 one eval to the next.
1460 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1461 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1462 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1463 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1464 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1466 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1467 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1468 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1469 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1470 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1471 used in a lexical environment.
1473 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1474 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1475 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1476 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1477 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1478 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1480 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1482 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1483 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1484 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1485 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1486 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1488 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1489 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1490 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1492 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1493 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1495 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1496 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1497 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1499 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1500 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1502 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1503 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1504 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1505 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1508 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1509 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1510 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1511 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1513 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1514 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1515 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1517 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1518 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1519 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1520 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1521 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1523 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1525 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1526 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1527 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1529 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1530 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1531 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1533 See manual for more info.
1535 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1537 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1538 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1539 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1541 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1543 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1544 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1545 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1547 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1548 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1549 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1550 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1552 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1554 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1555 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1557 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1558 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1559 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1560 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1561 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1564 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1565 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1566 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1567 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1568 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1569 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1571 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1572 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1573 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1574 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1575 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1577 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1578 objects are usually permanent.
1580 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1581 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1583 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1585 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1586 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1589 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1593 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1598 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1600 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1601 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1602 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1603 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1605 ** New function `make-object-property'
1607 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
1608 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
1612 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
1613 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
1617 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
1618 source properties eventually.
1620 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
1622 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
1623 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
1624 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
1626 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
1627 will be removed in the next release.
1629 ** New define-module option: pure
1631 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
1636 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
1639 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
1641 Export names NAME1 ...
1643 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
1644 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
1648 (define-module (foo)
1650 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
1653 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
1658 ** New function: object->string OBJ
1660 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
1662 ** New function: port? X
1664 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
1665 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
1667 ** New function: file-port?
1669 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
1671 ** New function: port-for-each proc
1673 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
1674 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
1675 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
1676 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
1677 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
1679 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
1681 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
1682 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
1683 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
1684 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
1685 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
1688 ** New function: close-fdes fd
1690 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
1691 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
1692 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
1693 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
1696 ** New function: crypt password salt
1698 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
1701 ** New function: chroot path
1703 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
1705 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
1707 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
1710 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
1712 Get or set the priority of the running process.
1714 ** New function: getpass prompt
1716 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
1719 ** New function: flock file operation
1721 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
1723 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
1725 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
1728 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
1730 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
1731 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
1732 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
1733 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
1734 of the temporary file.
1736 ** New function: open-input-string string
1738 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
1739 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
1740 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
1742 ** New function: open-output-string
1744 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
1745 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
1747 ** New function: get-output-string
1749 Return the contents of an output string port.
1751 ** New function: identity
1753 Return the argument.
1755 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
1756 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
1758 ** New function: inet-pton family address
1760 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
1761 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
1762 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1765 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
1766 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
1768 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
1770 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
1771 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
1772 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1775 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
1776 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
1777 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
1781 Use `identity' instead.
1787 ** Deprecated: return-it
1791 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
1793 Use `string-length' instead.
1795 ** Deprecated: flags
1797 Use `logior' instead.
1799 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
1801 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
1802 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
1803 port-for-each is more flexible.
1805 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
1806 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
1807 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
1809 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
1811 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
1813 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
1815 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
1817 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
1819 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
1820 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
1822 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
1823 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
1825 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
1826 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
1828 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
1830 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
1831 Removed function: builtin-bindings
1833 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
1834 Use module system operations for all variables.
1836 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
1838 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
1841 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
1843 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
1844 The following bugs have been fixed:
1846 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
1847 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
1850 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
1851 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
1852 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
1854 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
1855 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
1857 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
1858 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
1861 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
1862 The expansion used to be like so:
1864 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
1866 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
1868 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
1870 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
1871 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
1873 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
1875 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
1876 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
1877 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
1881 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
1882 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
1884 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
1889 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
1890 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
1892 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
1893 and `d', other keywords allowed.
1894 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
1896 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
1899 * Changes to the C interface
1901 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
1903 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
1904 with "_t". What a concept.
1906 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
1908 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
1910 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
1914 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
1915 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
1917 *** C Functions removed
1919 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
1920 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
1921 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
1922 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
1923 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
1924 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
1925 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
1927 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
1929 Use scm_mem2string instead.
1931 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
1933 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
1935 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
1936 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
1938 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
1940 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
1943 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
1945 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
1947 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
1949 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
1950 Evaluation" in the manual.
1952 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
1954 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
1955 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
1957 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
1959 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
1960 Constructors" in the manual.
1962 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
1964 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
1965 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
1967 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
1969 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
1971 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
1972 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
1973 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
1975 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
1977 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
1979 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
1980 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
1981 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
1984 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
1986 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
1988 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
1989 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
1991 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
1993 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
1994 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
1995 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
1996 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
1998 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
1999 scm_primitive_property_ref
2000 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2001 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2003 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2004 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2006 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2008 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2009 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2010 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2011 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2013 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2015 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2016 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2017 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2018 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2019 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2020 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2021 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2023 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2024 scm_remember_upto_here
2026 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2028 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2030 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2031 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2033 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2035 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2037 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2039 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2041 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2043 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2044 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2045 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2046 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2047 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2048 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2050 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2052 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2054 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2055 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2056 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2058 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2060 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2061 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2062 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2064 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2066 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2067 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2070 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2073 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2074 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2077 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2079 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2081 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2083 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2085 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2087 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2089 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2090 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2091 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2092 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2093 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2094 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2095 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2096 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2097 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2098 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2099 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2100 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2101 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2102 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2103 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2105 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2106 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2107 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2108 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2109 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2110 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2111 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2112 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2113 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2114 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2115 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2116 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2117 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2118 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2119 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2120 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2121 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2122 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2123 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2124 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2125 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2126 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2127 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2128 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2129 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2130 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2131 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2132 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2133 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2135 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2137 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2139 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2140 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2142 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2144 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2146 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2148 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2150 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2152 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2154 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2156 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2158 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2161 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2162 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2164 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2166 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2168 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2170 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2172 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2174 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2176 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2178 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2181 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2183 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2185 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2187 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2188 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2190 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2191 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2193 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2195 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2196 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2197 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2199 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2201 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2203 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2204 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2206 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2207 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2208 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2209 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2211 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2212 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2213 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2215 Use the new ones from above instead.
2217 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2219 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2220 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2221 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2223 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2224 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2226 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2227 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2230 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2231 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2233 Use the new functions instead.
2235 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2238 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2240 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2242 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2245 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2247 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2250 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2252 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2255 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2256 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2257 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2259 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2261 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2262 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2264 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2265 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2266 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2267 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2270 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2272 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2273 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2274 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2275 inexact for an exact.
2277 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2278 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2279 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2282 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2283 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2284 accept an inexact argument.
2286 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2287 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2289 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2292 ** New number validation macros:
2293 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2297 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2299 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2300 scm_unprotect_object.
2302 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2304 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2306 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2309 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2311 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2315 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2317 * Changes to the distribution
2319 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2321 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2322 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2323 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2324 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2325 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2326 obtain these programs.
2327 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2328 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2330 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2331 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2332 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2333 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2334 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2336 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2337 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2338 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2339 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2343 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2346 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2347 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2348 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2349 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2351 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2353 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2355 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2356 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2358 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2359 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2361 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2362 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2364 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2365 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2366 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2367 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2369 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2371 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2375 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2376 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2378 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2380 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2381 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2383 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2384 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2385 number of objects of that kind.
2387 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2389 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2390 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2391 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2392 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2393 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2395 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2397 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2399 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2401 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2404 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2406 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2408 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2410 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2412 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2414 ** New command line option --debug
2416 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2418 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2420 ** New help facility
2422 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2423 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2424 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2425 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2426 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2427 (help) gives this text
2429 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2430 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2432 Examples: (help help)
2434 (help "output-string")
2436 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2438 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2440 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2441 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2444 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2445 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2446 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2449 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2450 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2451 use absolute filenames when possible.
2453 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2454 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2455 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2458 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2460 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2461 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2462 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2463 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2465 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2467 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2469 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2470 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2471 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2473 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2474 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2475 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2477 (read-enable 'positions)
2478 (debug-enable 'debug)
2480 ** Backtraces in scripts
2482 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2486 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2488 at the top of the script.
2490 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2491 The second enables backtraces.)
2493 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2495 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2496 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2497 substantially faster than before.
2499 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2500 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2502 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2503 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2505 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2507 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2508 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2509 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2511 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2512 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2513 when this hook is run in the future.
2515 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2516 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2518 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2520 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2521 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2524 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2525 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2526 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2528 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2529 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2531 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2532 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2534 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2535 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2536 in order not to need further allocation.)
2538 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2541 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2542 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2543 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2544 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2546 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2548 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2551 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2553 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2556 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2557 GC in percent of total heap size
2560 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2561 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2563 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2565 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2566 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2568 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2570 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2571 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2573 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2575 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2576 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2580 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2581 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2583 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2585 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2587 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2589 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2591 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2593 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2594 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2596 (simple-format port message . args)
2597 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2598 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2599 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2600 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2601 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2602 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2603 Does not add a trailing newline."
2605 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
2607 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
2608 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
2610 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
2611 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
2613 ** Deprecated: list*
2615 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
2617 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
2619 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
2620 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
2622 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
2623 is returned as result.
2625 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
2627 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
2629 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
2631 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
2632 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
2635 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
2637 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
2639 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
2640 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
2642 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2644 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
2646 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
2648 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2650 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
2652 Thanks to Greg Badros!
2654 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2656 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2657 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
2658 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
2660 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
2663 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
2665 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
2666 the readability of argument checking.
2668 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
2670 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
2672 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
2674 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
2675 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
2676 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
2677 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
2678 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
2679 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
2680 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
2682 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
2684 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
2686 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
2687 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
2689 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
2691 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
2692 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
2695 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
2697 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
2698 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
2699 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
2701 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
2702 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
2703 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
2705 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
2706 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
2707 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
2708 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
2709 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
2710 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
2711 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
2713 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
2714 scm_end_input (object);
2715 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
2716 ptob->flush (object);
2718 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
2719 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
2722 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
2724 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
2726 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
2727 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
2728 removed in a future version.
2730 ** The format of error message strings has changed
2732 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
2733 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
2734 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
2735 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
2737 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
2738 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
2740 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
2743 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
2745 in your configure.in.
2747 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
2752 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
2758 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
2760 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
2764 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
2765 (define make-message string-append)
2767 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
2769 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
2773 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
2778 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
2782 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
2784 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
2785 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
2787 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
2789 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
2790 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
2791 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
2792 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
2793 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
2794 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
2796 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
2797 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
2798 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
2800 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
2801 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
2802 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
2805 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
2806 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
2807 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
2808 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
2809 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
2811 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
2812 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
2813 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
2814 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
2815 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
2816 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
2817 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
2819 Destructors are not yet implemented.
2821 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
2822 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
2823 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
2825 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
2826 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
2827 KEY in the calling thread.
2829 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
2830 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
2831 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
2832 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
2833 associated with the key.
2835 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
2837 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
2838 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
2840 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
2842 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
2843 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
2844 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
2846 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
2848 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
2849 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
2851 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
2853 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
2855 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
2856 returned is undefined.
2858 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
2859 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
2860 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
2862 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
2863 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
2864 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
2866 ** New C level GC hooks
2868 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
2870 scm_before_gc_c_hook
2873 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
2874 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
2875 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
2877 scm_before_mark_c_hook
2878 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
2879 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
2881 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
2882 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
2885 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
2887 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
2888 allocation parameters
2890 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
2891 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
2892 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
2896 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
2897 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
2898 scm_default_max_segment_size
2900 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
2902 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
2903 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
2905 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
2907 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
2908 object and count on the object being protected until
2909 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
2911 The functions also have better time complexity.
2913 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
2914 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
2915 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
2916 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
2917 are no longer needed.
2919 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
2921 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
2922 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
2923 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
2924 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
2926 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
2928 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
2930 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
2932 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
2933 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
2934 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
2935 until this issue has been settled.
2937 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
2939 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
2941 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
2944 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
2946 * Changes to system call interfaces:
2948 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
2949 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
2950 descriptors were checked.
2952 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
2953 atomically written to a pipe.
2955 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
2956 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
2957 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
2958 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
2959 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
2960 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
2961 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
2964 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
2965 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
2966 is changed without calling tzset.
2968 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
2970 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
2971 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
2972 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
2974 (define write-network-long
2975 (lambda (value port)
2976 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
2977 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
2978 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
2980 (define read-network-long
2982 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
2983 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
2984 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
2986 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
2987 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
2989 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
2990 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
2991 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
2992 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
2994 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
2995 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
2996 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
2997 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3001 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3003 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3007 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3008 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3009 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3015 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3016 for a description of available commands.
3018 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3019 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3020 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3022 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3024 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3025 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3027 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3029 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3031 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3032 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3033 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3034 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3035 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3036 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3039 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3041 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3042 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3043 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3044 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3046 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3047 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3049 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3051 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3053 ** Readline support has changed again.
3055 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3056 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3057 to activate readline is now
3059 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3062 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3064 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3065 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3066 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3069 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3070 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3071 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3074 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3075 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3076 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3077 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3078 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3079 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3081 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3082 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3084 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3086 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3087 object it receives is the same string passed to
3088 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3089 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3090 string, not the suffix.
3092 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3093 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3094 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3096 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3098 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3099 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3100 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3101 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3104 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3106 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3108 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3109 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3110 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3111 appear from left to right.
3113 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3116 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3118 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3119 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3121 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3125 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3127 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3129 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3131 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3132 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3133 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3135 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3137 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3139 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3141 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3144 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3146 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3147 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3148 mentioning it here anyway.
3150 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3152 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3153 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3154 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3155 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3158 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3160 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3162 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3164 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3165 otherwise return #f.
3167 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3169 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3170 returned by `opendir'.
3172 ** New function: using-readline?
3174 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3176 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3178 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3179 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3181 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3183 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3185 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3186 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3187 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3189 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3191 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3192 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3194 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3196 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3197 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3198 documentation slots are not yet used.
3200 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3202 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3203 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3204 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3209 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3210 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3211 (string-append x y))
3213 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3214 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3216 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3217 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3218 be made in a clean way.]
3220 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3222 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3224 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3226 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3227 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3229 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3231 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3233 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3235 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3237 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3238 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3239 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3240 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3243 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3245 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3247 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3249 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3251 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3252 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3254 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3256 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3258 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3260 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3262 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3263 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3264 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3265 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3266 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3267 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3269 This should not make any difference for most users.
3271 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3273 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3274 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3276 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3278 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3279 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3280 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3281 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3282 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3284 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3286 It is now replaced by:
3288 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3290 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3291 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3293 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3295 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3296 This might change when we get the new module system.
3298 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3302 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3304 * Changes to mailing lists
3306 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3308 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3311 * Changes to the distribution
3313 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3315 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3316 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3317 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3318 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3319 you explicitly specify it.
3321 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3322 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3323 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3324 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3325 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3328 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3329 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3330 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3331 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3333 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3334 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3335 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3338 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3340 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3343 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3345 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3347 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3348 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3349 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3350 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3352 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3353 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3356 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3358 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3359 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3360 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3361 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3362 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3363 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3364 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3365 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3377 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3378 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3379 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3380 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3381 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3386 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3387 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3395 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3400 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3401 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3404 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3405 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3406 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3407 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3409 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3411 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3413 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3414 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3416 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3418 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3420 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3421 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3423 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3426 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3428 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3430 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3432 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3434 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3436 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3438 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3439 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3440 when the hook was created.
3442 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3443 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3444 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3445 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3446 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3447 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3448 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3449 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3450 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3452 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3453 the dlopen family of functions.
3455 ** New function `provided?'
3457 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3458 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3459 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3460 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3462 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3464 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3465 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3466 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3467 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3470 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3471 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3472 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3473 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3475 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3476 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3477 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3480 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3481 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3482 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3483 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3484 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3485 but with the flag set.
3487 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3489 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3490 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3492 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3493 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3494 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3495 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3496 available Scheme format implementations.
3498 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3499 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3500 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3501 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3502 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3503 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3504 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3505 output is to the current error port if available by the
3506 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3509 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3510 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3511 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3512 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3513 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3514 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3515 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3516 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3518 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3519 be executed at a time.
3522 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3524 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3525 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3526 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3528 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3529 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3530 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3531 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3532 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3533 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3534 general form of a directive is:
3536 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3538 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3540 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3542 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3543 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3544 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3547 Any (print as `display' does).
3551 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3555 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3559 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3565 print number sign always.
3568 print comma separated.
3570 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3576 print number sign always.
3579 print comma separated.
3581 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3587 print number sign always.
3590 print comma separated.
3592 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3598 print number sign always.
3601 print comma separated.
3603 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
3608 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
3612 print a number as a Roman numeral.
3615 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
3618 print a number as an ordinal English number.
3621 print a number as a cardinal English number.
3626 prints `y' and `ies'.
3629 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3632 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3637 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
3641 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
3644 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
3645 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
3647 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3650 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
3651 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
3653 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3656 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
3658 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
3660 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3663 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
3665 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
3667 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3670 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
3673 The sign appears before the padding.
3681 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
3683 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
3688 print N page separators.
3698 newline is ignored, white space left.
3701 newline is left, white space ignored.
3706 relative tabulation.
3712 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
3714 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
3717 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
3719 converts by `string-capitalize'.
3722 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
3725 converts by `string-upcase'.
3728 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
3730 jumps N arguments forward.
3733 jumps 1 argument backward.
3736 jumps N arguments backward.
3739 jumps to the 0th argument.
3742 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
3744 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
3745 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
3747 take argument from N.
3750 true test conditional.
3753 if-else-then conditional.
3759 default clause follows.
3762 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
3764 at most N iterations.
3767 args from next arg (a list of lists).
3770 args from the rest of arguments.
3773 args from the rest args (lists).
3784 aborts if N <= M <= K
3786 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3789 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3792 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3798 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
3800 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
3802 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
3803 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
3804 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
3805 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
3806 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
3807 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
3811 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
3815 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
3821 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
3824 Print a `#\space' character
3826 print N `#\space' characters.
3829 Print a `#\tab' character
3831 print N `#\tab' characters.
3834 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
3835 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
3836 must be a positive decimal number.
3839 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3840 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3841 be processed by `read'.
3844 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3845 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3846 be processed by `read'.
3849 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
3852 prints format version.
3855 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
3856 and format it accordingly.
3858 *** Configuration Variables
3860 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
3861 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
3862 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
3863 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
3866 format:symbol-case-conv
3867 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
3868 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
3869 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
3870 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
3871 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
3873 format:iobj-case-conv
3874 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
3875 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
3878 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
3881 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
3887 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
3888 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
3889 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
3890 `format' padding style.
3893 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
3894 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
3895 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
3896 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
3900 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
3901 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
3902 directive parameters or modifiers)).
3905 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
3906 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
3907 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
3908 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
3909 parameters or modifiers)).
3912 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
3914 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
3916 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
3917 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
3919 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
3920 string-downcase! functions.
3922 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
3923 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
3925 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
3928 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
3931 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
3932 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
3934 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
3936 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
3937 the symbol had be read by `read'.
3939 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
3940 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
3941 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
3942 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
3943 would if STRING were input.
3945 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
3947 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
3948 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
3949 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
3950 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
3953 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
3955 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
3956 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
3959 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
3961 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
3962 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
3964 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
3965 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
3967 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
3968 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
3969 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
3970 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
3972 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
3973 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
3975 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
3976 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
3977 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
3979 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
3980 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
3982 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
3983 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
3984 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
3985 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
3986 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
3988 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
3989 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
3990 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
3991 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
3992 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
3993 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
3995 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
3996 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
3997 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4000 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4001 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4002 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4003 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4004 the following grammar:
4005 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4006 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4007 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4008 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4009 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4010 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4011 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4012 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4013 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4014 last option in its combination)
4016 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4017 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4018 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4019 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4021 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4022 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4023 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4025 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4026 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4027 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4029 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4030 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4031 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4032 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4033 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4034 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4035 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4036 ordinary argument strings.
4038 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4039 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4040 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4041 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4043 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4044 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4046 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4047 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4048 - a required option is omitted
4049 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4050 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4051 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4052 - an option predicate fails
4057 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4060 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4061 (verbose (required? #f)
4064 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4065 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4066 (predicate ,string?))))
4068 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4069 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4071 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4072 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4073 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4074 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4077 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4079 It will be removed in a few releases.
4081 ** New syntax: lambda*
4082 ** New syntax: define*
4083 ** New syntax: define*-public
4084 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4085 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4086 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4088 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4089 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4090 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4091 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4092 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4094 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4095 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4096 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4098 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4100 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4101 and examples for `lambda*':
4104 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4106 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4107 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4108 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4109 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4110 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4111 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4112 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4113 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4115 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4117 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4118 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4119 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4120 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4122 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4123 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4124 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4125 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4126 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4127 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4128 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4129 and until the procedure is called.
4131 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4133 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4134 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4135 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4136 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4137 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4138 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4139 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4140 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4141 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4142 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4144 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4145 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4146 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4147 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4150 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4152 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4153 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4154 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4155 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4157 ** New syntax: and-let*
4158 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4160 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4161 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4162 (<variable> <expression>)
4165 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4166 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4167 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4170 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4171 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4172 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4173 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4174 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4175 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4176 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4178 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4179 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4180 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4181 shadow earlier bindings.
4183 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4185 ** New sorting functions
4187 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4188 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4189 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4190 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4192 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4193 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4196 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4197 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4198 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4200 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4201 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4202 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4203 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4205 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4206 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4207 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4208 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4209 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4212 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4213 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4214 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4215 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4216 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4217 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4219 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4220 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4221 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4223 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4224 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4225 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4228 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4229 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4230 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4232 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4233 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4235 ** New built-in random number support
4237 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4238 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4239 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4240 returned have a uniform distribution.
4242 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4243 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4244 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4245 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4246 effect of the `random' operation.
4248 *** New variable: *random-state*
4249 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4250 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4251 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4252 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4253 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4256 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
4257 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4258 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4259 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4260 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4262 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4263 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4264 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4265 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4266 initialized using SEED.
4268 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4269 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4270 range between 0 and 1.
4272 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4273 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4274 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4275 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4276 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4277 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4278 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4280 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4281 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4282 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4283 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4284 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4285 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4287 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4288 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4289 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4290 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4292 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4293 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4294 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4295 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4297 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4298 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4299 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4301 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4303 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4306 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4307 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4310 ** New function: make-guardian
4311 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4312 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4313 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4314 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4315 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4317 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4318 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4319 one object if at all.
4321 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4322 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4323 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4325 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4326 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4327 read again in last-in first-out order.
4329 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4330 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4332 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4334 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4335 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4336 file position is used.
4338 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4339 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4340 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4342 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4343 redefined using seek.
4345 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4346 size is not supplied.
4348 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4349 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4351 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4352 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4354 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4356 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4357 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4358 and returns the contents as a single string.
4360 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4361 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4362 lists in serial order.
4364 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4365 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4366 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4368 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4369 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4370 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4371 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4373 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4374 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4375 and #f if an error occured.
4377 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4379 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4380 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4381 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4382 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4384 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4386 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4389 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4391 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4394 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4398 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4399 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4401 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4402 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4406 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4408 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4410 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4411 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4413 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4415 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4416 might change when we get the new module system.
4418 ** The smob interface
4420 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4421 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4423 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4425 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4429 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4430 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4431 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4432 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4433 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4434 will be freed by the default free function.
4436 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4437 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4438 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4439 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4441 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4442 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4443 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4444 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4446 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4448 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4449 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4453 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4454 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4455 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4457 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4458 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4459 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4460 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4462 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4463 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4464 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4466 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4467 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4468 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4469 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4471 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4472 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4473 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4475 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4479 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4481 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4482 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4483 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4485 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4486 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4487 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4489 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4490 a string port's buffer.
4492 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4493 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4494 function pointers which together define the current random number
4495 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4496 number library functions.
4498 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4501 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4502 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4505 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4506 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4508 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4509 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4511 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4512 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4515 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4516 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4517 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4518 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4520 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4521 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4522 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4523 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4524 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4525 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4526 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4528 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4529 by libguile and the application.
4531 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4532 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4533 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4534 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4536 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4537 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4539 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4540 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4541 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4543 ** Random number library functions
4544 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4545 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4546 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4548 The default random state is stored in:
4550 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4551 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4552 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4557 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4559 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4560 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4561 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4562 isn't a random state.
4564 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4565 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4567 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4568 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4569 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4570 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4572 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4573 Return 32 random bits.
4575 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4576 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4578 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4579 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4581 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4582 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4584 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4585 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4587 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4588 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4589 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4593 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4595 * Changes to the distribution
4597 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4598 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4599 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4602 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4603 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4604 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
4606 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
4607 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
4608 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
4609 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
4612 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
4613 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
4614 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
4616 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4618 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
4620 *** Function: batch-mode?
4622 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
4625 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
4627 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
4628 case has not been implemented.
4630 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
4631 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
4632 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
4635 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
4636 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
4638 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
4640 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4642 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
4644 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
4645 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
4648 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
4649 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
4650 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
4651 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
4654 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
4656 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
4657 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
4658 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
4659 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
4660 find those libraries.
4662 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
4663 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
4666 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
4668 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
4669 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
4670 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
4671 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
4673 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
4674 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
4675 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
4679 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
4681 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
4682 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
4683 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
4686 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
4687 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
4688 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
4689 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
4691 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
4692 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
4695 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
4696 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
4697 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
4698 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
4699 compiler where to find the libraries.
4701 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
4702 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
4703 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
4705 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
4706 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
4707 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
4708 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
4709 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
4713 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4715 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
4716 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
4717 internationalization support.
4719 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
4720 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
4721 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
4722 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
4723 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
4725 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
4726 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
4727 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
4728 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
4729 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
4731 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
4732 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
4733 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
4734 any GNU mirror site.
4736 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
4738 ** New function: add-history STRING
4739 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
4740 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
4741 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
4743 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
4745 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
4746 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
4747 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
4750 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
4751 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
4752 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
4754 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
4756 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
4759 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
4760 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
4763 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
4764 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
4765 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
4766 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
4767 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
4768 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
4770 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
4771 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
4772 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
4773 of the form mentioned above.
4775 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
4776 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
4777 returned in the special `rest' list.
4779 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
4780 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
4782 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
4784 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
4786 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
4788 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
4789 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
4790 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
4791 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
4792 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
4793 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
4794 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
4795 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
4798 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
4800 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
4802 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
4803 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
4806 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
4807 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
4808 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
4812 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
4813 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
4814 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
4815 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
4816 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
4817 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
4818 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
4819 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
4822 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
4824 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
4825 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
4826 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
4828 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
4830 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
4831 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
4833 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
4834 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
4835 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
4837 Why do we have this function?
4838 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
4839 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
4840 primitive, and display it differently, and
4841 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
4842 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
4845 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
4846 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
4849 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
4850 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
4851 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
4852 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
4854 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
4855 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
4858 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
4859 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
4861 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
4863 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
4864 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
4865 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
4866 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
4867 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
4868 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
4869 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
4872 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
4874 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
4875 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
4877 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
4878 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
4879 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
4880 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
4881 properly continue the print chain.
4883 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
4884 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
4885 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
4886 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
4887 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
4888 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
4889 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
4890 print-state, it is simply ignored.
4892 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
4893 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
4894 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
4895 safest to not check for these pairs.
4897 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
4898 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
4899 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
4900 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
4902 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
4904 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
4905 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
4907 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
4909 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
4911 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
4912 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
4913 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
4915 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
4916 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
4917 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
4919 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
4920 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
4921 the following functions and macros:
4923 Function: make-fluid
4925 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
4926 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
4927 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
4928 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
4929 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
4931 Function: fluid? OBJ
4933 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
4935 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
4936 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
4938 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
4939 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
4941 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
4943 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
4944 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
4945 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
4946 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
4947 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
4948 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
4949 modified by `with-fluids*'.
4951 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
4953 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
4954 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
4955 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
4956 should evaluate to a fluid.
4958 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
4960 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
4961 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
4962 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
4963 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
4964 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
4966 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
4969 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
4971 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
4973 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
4975 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
4978 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
4979 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
4980 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
4981 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
4982 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
4985 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
4986 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
4987 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
4989 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
4990 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
4991 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
4993 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
4994 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
4995 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
4996 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
4998 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
4999 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5000 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5001 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5003 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5004 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5005 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5006 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5008 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5009 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5010 their revealed counts set to zero.
5012 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5013 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5015 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5016 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5018 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5019 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5021 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5022 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5023 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5025 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5026 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5027 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5029 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5030 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5031 default environment inherited by child processes.
5033 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5034 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5035 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5037 The return value is unspecified.
5039 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5040 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5041 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5042 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5043 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5045 The return value is unspecified.
5047 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5048 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5056 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5057 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5060 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5063 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5064 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5065 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5067 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5068 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5069 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5070 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5073 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5074 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5076 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5077 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5078 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5079 the `environ' procedure.
5081 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5082 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5085 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5086 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5088 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5089 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5090 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5091 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5093 *** procedure: times
5094 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5095 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5096 return a selected component:
5099 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5103 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5106 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5110 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5111 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5115 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5116 terminated child processes.
5118 ** Removed: list-length
5119 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5120 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5122 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5124 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5126 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5128 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5129 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5130 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5131 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5133 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5134 extra complexity it introduces.
5136 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5137 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5139 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5140 variable to any non-empty value.
5142 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5143 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5145 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5147 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5148 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5150 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5152 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5153 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5155 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5157 ** vector handling routines
5159 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5160 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5161 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5162 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5163 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5165 ** pair and list routines
5167 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5170 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5172 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5175 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5177 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5179 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5180 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5181 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5182 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5183 site-specific initialization code.
5185 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5186 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5187 initialization processes.
5189 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5190 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5191 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5192 initialized properly.
5194 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5195 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5196 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5198 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5199 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5200 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5201 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5202 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5204 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5206 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5207 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5208 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5209 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5210 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5212 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5213 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5214 which look like this:
5217 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5219 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5220 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5223 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5224 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5227 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5229 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5230 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5231 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5233 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5234 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5235 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5236 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5237 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5239 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5240 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5242 int (*free) (SCM port);
5243 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5244 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5245 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5249 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5250 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5251 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5253 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5256 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5257 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5258 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5260 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5261 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5262 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5265 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5269 struct timeval *timeout);
5271 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5272 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5273 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5274 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5275 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5276 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5278 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5279 scm_catch_body_t body,
5281 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5284 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5285 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5286 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5287 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5288 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5289 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5291 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5293 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5296 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5297 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5298 spawning threads from application C code.
5300 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5301 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5302 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5303 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5304 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5305 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5307 ** Removed functions:
5309 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5310 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5312 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5314 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5315 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5317 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5319 ** mbstrings are now removed
5321 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5322 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5324 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5326 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5327 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5328 their new names and arguments:
5330 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5331 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5332 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5333 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5336 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5338 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5340 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5343 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5345 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5346 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5347 pass a #f arg to catch.
5349 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5351 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5352 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5355 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5356 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5357 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5358 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5359 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5360 reclaim its storage.
5362 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5363 worrying that some other function you call will call
5364 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5365 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5366 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5367 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5370 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5372 * Changes to the distribution
5374 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5375 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5378 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5379 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5381 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5382 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5384 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5386 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5387 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5388 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5390 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5392 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5393 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5394 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5395 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5396 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5397 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5399 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5400 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5401 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5404 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5405 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5406 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5407 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5409 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5410 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5411 libraries to your link command:
5413 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5414 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5415 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5416 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5418 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5419 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5420 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5422 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5424 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5425 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5428 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5430 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5431 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5432 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5433 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5434 searched is system dependent.
5436 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5438 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5440 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5442 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5443 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5445 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5447 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5448 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5449 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5450 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5451 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5454 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5456 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5457 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5458 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5459 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5460 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5462 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5464 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5465 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5467 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5469 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5470 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5471 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5474 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5476 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5477 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5478 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5479 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5481 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5482 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5484 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5486 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5487 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5489 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5491 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5492 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5500 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5502 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5503 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5504 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5505 a more informative way.
5507 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5508 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5509 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5510 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5511 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5512 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5514 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5515 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5518 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5519 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5520 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5523 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5524 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5525 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5526 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5527 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5528 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5530 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5531 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5532 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5533 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5536 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5537 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5538 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5539 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5540 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5541 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5543 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5544 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5545 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5546 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5547 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5549 *** regexp functions
5551 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5552 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5553 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5555 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5556 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5557 with SCSH regular expressions.
5559 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5560 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5561 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5562 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5564 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5565 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5566 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5567 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5569 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5570 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5571 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5572 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5573 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5574 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5576 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5577 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5578 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5579 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5580 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5582 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5584 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5585 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5586 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5587 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5589 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5590 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5591 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5593 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5594 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5596 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5599 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5600 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5601 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5603 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5604 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5605 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
5607 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
5608 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
5609 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
5610 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
5611 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
5614 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5616 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
5617 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
5618 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
5619 used when different portions of a string are passed to
5620 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
5621 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
5623 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
5624 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
5625 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
5627 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
5628 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
5631 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
5632 and replace them with the contents of another string.
5634 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
5635 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
5636 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
5637 may be one of the following arguments:
5639 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
5641 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
5643 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
5644 the regexp match is written.
5646 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
5647 following the regexp match is written.
5649 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
5650 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
5653 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
5654 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
5655 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
5656 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
5657 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
5658 which should be matched against this regular expression.
5660 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
5663 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
5664 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
5665 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
5666 written out to PORT.
5668 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
5669 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
5670 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
5671 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
5672 will return after processing a single match.
5674 *** Match Structures
5676 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
5677 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
5678 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
5679 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
5680 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
5681 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
5684 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
5685 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
5686 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
5687 information about the original target string that was matched against a
5688 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
5690 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
5691 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
5692 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
5694 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
5695 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
5696 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
5697 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
5698 number N did not match, return `#f'.
5700 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
5701 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
5703 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
5704 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
5706 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
5707 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
5709 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
5710 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
5712 **** Function: match:count MATCH
5713 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
5714 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
5715 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
5717 **** Function: match:string MATCH
5718 Return the original TARGET string.
5720 *** Backslash Escapes
5722 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
5723 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
5724 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
5725 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
5726 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
5727 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
5729 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
5730 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
5731 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
5732 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
5733 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
5734 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
5735 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
5736 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
5738 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
5739 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
5740 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
5741 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
5742 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
5743 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
5744 each match a single backslash in the target string.
5746 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
5747 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
5748 return the resulting string.
5750 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
5751 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
5752 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
5753 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
5754 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
5755 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
5756 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
5757 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
5758 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
5759 translated to the single character `*'.
5761 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
5762 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
5763 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
5764 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
5765 consecutive backslashes:
5767 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
5769 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
5770 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
5771 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
5773 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
5774 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
5775 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
5776 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
5777 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
5778 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
5780 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
5782 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
5783 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
5784 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
5785 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
5786 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
5787 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
5788 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
5789 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
5790 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
5791 cumbersome escape syntax.
5793 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5795 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5797 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5799 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
5802 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
5804 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
5806 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
5809 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
5810 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
5811 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
5812 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
5813 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
5815 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
5816 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
5817 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
5818 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
5819 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
5820 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
5821 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
5824 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
5825 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
5826 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
5829 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
5830 `force-output' on every port open for output.
5832 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
5833 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
5834 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
5835 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
5836 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
5837 installed, you can say:
5839 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
5842 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5844 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
5845 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
5846 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
5847 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
5848 new dynamic roots and threads.
5851 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
5853 * Changes to the distribution.
5855 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
5857 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
5858 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
5859 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
5860 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
5861 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
5862 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
5863 programming language. These are packaged together because the
5864 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
5866 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
5869 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
5870 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
5875 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5877 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
5878 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
5880 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
5881 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
5882 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
5883 the (command-line) function.
5884 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
5885 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
5886 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
5888 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
5889 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
5890 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
5891 command line arguments
5892 -ds do -s script at this point
5893 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
5894 -h, --help display this help and exit
5895 -v, --version display version information and exit
5896 \ read arguments from following script lines
5898 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
5899 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
5901 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5904 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5908 (main (command-line))
5910 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
5912 ekko a speckled gecko
5914 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
5915 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
5916 following list of command-line arguments:
5918 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
5920 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
5921 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
5922 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
5923 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
5924 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5926 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
5928 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
5930 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
5931 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
5934 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
5935 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
5936 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
5937 SCSH) for circumventing them.
5939 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
5940 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
5941 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
5942 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
5944 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
5948 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5952 If the user invokes this script as follows:
5954 ekko a speckled gecko
5956 Unix expands this into
5958 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
5960 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
5961 read from the second line of the script, producing:
5963 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
5965 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
5966 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5968 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
5969 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
5970 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
5971 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
5972 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
5973 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
5974 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
5975 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
5976 it only terminates the argument list.)
5977 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
5978 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
5979 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
5980 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
5981 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
5982 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
5983 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
5984 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
5986 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5988 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
5989 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
5990 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
5991 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
5992 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
5994 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
5995 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
5996 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
5998 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6000 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6001 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6002 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6003 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6006 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6007 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6008 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6010 * Changes to Scheme functions
6012 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6013 and disabled by default.
6015 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6016 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6017 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6018 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6020 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6022 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6024 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6025 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6027 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6028 (read-set! keywords #f)
6030 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6031 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6032 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6035 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6036 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6037 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6040 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6041 support for Scheme functions.
6043 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6044 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6045 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6046 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6049 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6050 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6051 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6054 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6055 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6056 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6059 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6060 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6061 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6062 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6063 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6064 display the result as a prompt.
6065 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6067 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6068 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6069 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6072 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6073 procedure of zero arguments.
6075 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6076 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6077 argument is bound in the current module.
6079 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6080 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6081 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6082 public bindings into the current module.
6084 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6085 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6087 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6088 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6090 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6091 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6093 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6094 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6096 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6097 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6099 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6100 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6101 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6102 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6103 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6105 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6106 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6107 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6108 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6110 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6113 ** Changes to I/O functions
6115 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6116 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6117 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6119 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6120 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6121 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6123 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6124 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6126 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6127 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6128 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6129 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6131 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6133 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6134 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6136 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6137 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6138 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6139 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6140 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6143 'trim omit delimiter from result
6144 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6145 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6146 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6148 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6150 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6151 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6153 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6154 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6155 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6156 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6157 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6159 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6160 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6161 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6163 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6164 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6165 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6166 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6168 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6169 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6171 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6172 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6174 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6176 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6177 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6178 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6179 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6180 a delimiting character.
6181 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6183 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6184 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6185 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6186 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6187 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6188 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6190 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6191 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6193 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6194 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6195 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6197 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6198 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6199 the array to read and write.
6201 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6202 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6205 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6207 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6210 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6211 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6212 Values for COMMAND are:
6214 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6215 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6216 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6217 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6218 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6219 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6220 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6221 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6223 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6225 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6226 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6227 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6228 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6229 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6230 corresponding return set will be the same.
6232 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6235 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6236 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6237 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6238 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6239 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6240 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6241 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6242 special file being created.
6244 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6245 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6247 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6248 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6249 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6250 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6251 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6252 and originating address.
6254 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6255 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6256 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6258 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6261 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6262 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6265 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6266 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6267 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6268 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6269 this function returns #f.
6271 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6272 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6273 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6276 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6277 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6278 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6281 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6282 a valid STATUS value.
6284 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6286 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6287 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6289 Component Accessor Setter
6290 ========================= ============ ============
6291 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6292 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6293 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6294 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6295 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6296 year tm:year set-tm:year
6297 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6298 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6299 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6300 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6301 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6303 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6304 describing the host system:
6307 ============================================== ================
6308 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6309 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6310 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6311 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6312 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6314 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6315 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6316 system's user database:
6319 ====================== =================
6320 user name passwd:name
6321 user password passwd:passwd
6324 real name passwd:gecos
6325 home directory passwd:dir
6326 shell program passwd:shell
6328 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6329 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6330 system's group database:
6333 ======================= ============
6334 group name group:name
6335 group password group:passwd
6337 group members group:mem
6339 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6340 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6344 ========================= ===============
6345 official name of host hostent:name
6346 alias list hostent:aliases
6347 host address type hostent:addrtype
6348 length of address hostent:length
6349 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6351 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6352 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6356 ========================= ===============
6357 official name of net netent:name
6358 alias list netent:aliases
6359 net number type netent:addrtype
6360 net number netent:net
6362 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6363 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6367 ========================= ===============
6368 official protocol name protoent:name
6369 alias list protoent:aliases
6370 protocol number protoent:proto
6372 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6373 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6377 ========================= ===============
6378 official service name servent:name
6379 alias list servent:aliases
6380 port number servent:port
6381 protocol to use servent:proto
6383 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6384 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6387 ======================================== ===============
6388 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6389 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6390 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6391 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6393 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6394 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6395 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6397 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6398 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6400 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6401 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6403 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6404 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6406 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6408 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6410 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6411 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6412 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6414 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6415 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6416 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6417 return the remaining characters as a string.
6419 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6420 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6421 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6423 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6425 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6427 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6430 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6433 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6434 and returns the array
6436 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6437 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6438 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6440 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6442 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6443 symbol's value from C code:
6445 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6446 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6447 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6448 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6450 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6451 without assigning them a value.
6453 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6454 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6455 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6457 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6458 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6459 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6461 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6462 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6464 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6465 doesn't actually care about that.
6467 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6468 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6469 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6471 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6472 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6473 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6474 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6475 which we have just created and initialized.
6477 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6478 should one occur. We call it like this:
6479 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6481 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6482 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6483 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6484 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6485 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6486 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6489 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6490 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6491 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6492 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6493 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6494 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6495 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6498 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6499 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6500 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6501 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6502 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6505 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6506 scm_internal_catch, except:
6508 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6509 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6510 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6511 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6514 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6515 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6516 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6518 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6519 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6520 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6521 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6524 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6525 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6526 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6528 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6529 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6530 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6531 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6532 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6534 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6535 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6536 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6538 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6539 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6540 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6542 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6543 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6545 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6546 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6547 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6550 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6551 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6552 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6553 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6554 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6555 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6556 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6559 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6560 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6562 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6563 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6564 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6565 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6566 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6569 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6570 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6572 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6573 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6576 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6577 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6579 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6582 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6583 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6584 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6585 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6586 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6587 given the following arguments:
6589 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6591 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6593 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6595 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6598 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6599 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6600 command-line arguments.
6602 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6603 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6604 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6605 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
6606 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
6607 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
6610 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6613 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
6614 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
6616 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
6617 rearranged slightly. They are now:
6619 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6620 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6621 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
6622 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
6624 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6625 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6627 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6628 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
6629 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6630 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
6632 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6633 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6635 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
6636 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
6638 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
6640 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
6641 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
6642 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
6645 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
6646 returns a port instead of an FD object.
6648 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
6649 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
6654 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
6657 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
6659 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
6660 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
6661 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
6662 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
6664 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
6666 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
6668 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
6669 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
6670 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
6671 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
6672 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
6673 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
6674 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
6675 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
6676 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
6677 for more information.
6679 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
6680 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
6682 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
6683 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
6684 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
6685 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
6686 following two lines at the top of the file:
6688 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6691 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
6692 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
6693 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
6695 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
6697 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6699 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
6702 (display (car args))
6703 (if (pair? (cdr args))
6705 (loop (cdr args)))))
6708 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
6709 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
6710 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
6711 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
6712 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
6713 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
6717 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
6720 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
6723 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
6725 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
6726 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
6727 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
6728 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
6729 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
6732 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
6733 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
6734 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
6735 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
6736 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
6739 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
6742 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
6743 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
6744 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
6747 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
6748 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
6749 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
6751 to see a backtrace, and
6752 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
6753 to see them by default.
6757 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
6759 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
6761 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
6762 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
6765 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
6766 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
6767 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
6768 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
6771 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
6772 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
6773 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
6774 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
6775 functions which inspired them.
6777 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
6778 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
6782 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
6784 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
6786 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
6787 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
6790 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
6791 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
6792 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
6794 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
6795 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
6796 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
6797 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
6798 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
6800 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
6802 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
6803 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
6804 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
6807 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
6810 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
6812 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
6813 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
6814 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
6815 above should serve their purposes.
6817 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
6818 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
6819 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
6820 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
6822 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
6825 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
6826 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
6827 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
6828 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
6830 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
6831 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
6832 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
6833 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
6835 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
6836 for the `read' function.
6839 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
6840 to that of `integer?'.
6842 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
6843 use the R4RS names for these functions.
6845 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
6846 it simply returns the object's property list.
6848 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
6849 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
6850 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
6851 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
6853 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
6855 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
6858 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
6860 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
6861 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
6863 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
6865 void (*main_func) (),
6868 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
6869 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
6870 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
6871 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
6872 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
6874 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
6875 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
6876 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
6877 know which arguments have been processed.
6879 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
6880 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
6881 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
6882 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
6883 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
6885 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
6886 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
6887 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
6888 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
6889 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
6890 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
6891 people from making that mistake.
6893 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
6894 convenient ways to override these when desired.
6896 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
6898 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
6902 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
6905 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
6906 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
6907 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
6908 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
6911 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
6912 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
6913 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
6914 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
6917 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
6918 have been added to the Guile library.
6920 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
6921 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
6922 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
6925 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
6926 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
6927 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
6929 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
6930 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
6931 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
6932 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
6933 argument from the list.
6936 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
6939 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
6940 null-terminated string, and returns it.
6942 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
6943 to a Scheme port object.
6945 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
6946 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
6951 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
6953 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
6954 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
6955 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
6956 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
6957 code as a special datatype.
6959 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
6960 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
6961 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
6962 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
6963 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
6966 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
6967 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
6968 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
6969 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
6970 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
6972 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
6975 Copyright information:
6977 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
6979 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
6980 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
6981 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
6982 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
6984 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
6985 of this document, or of portions of it,
6986 under the above conditions, provided also that they
6987 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
6992 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"