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), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
113 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
116 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
117 with a renaming import, for example.
119 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
121 The official version is good enough now.
123 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
125 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
126 provided. Use 'make html'.
128 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
130 ** New command line option `-L'.
132 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
134 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
136 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
137 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
139 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
141 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
142 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
144 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
146 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
147 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
150 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
153 (define-module (demo)
157 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
160 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
162 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
164 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
165 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
167 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
168 substrings and read-only strings.
170 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
171 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
174 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
176 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
185 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
186 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
187 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
189 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
190 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
191 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
194 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
195 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
198 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
200 See the manual for details.
202 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
204 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
207 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
209 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
210 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
211 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
212 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
214 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
215 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
216 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
219 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
221 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
222 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
233 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
237 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
242 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
246 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
250 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
252 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
253 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
254 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
257 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
260 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
262 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
265 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
266 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
274 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
275 has been detected is to
277 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
278 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
279 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
282 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
285 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
287 to your .guile init file.
289 ### move rest to manual
291 The syntax for the :duplicates option is:
293 :duplicates HANDLER-NAME | (HANDLER1-NAME HANDLER2-NAME ...)
295 Specifying multiple handlers is useful since some handlers (such as
296 replace) can defer conflict resolution to others. Each handler is
297 tried until a binding is selected.
299 Currently available duplicates handlers are:
301 check report an error for bindings with a common name
302 warn issue a warning for bindings with a common name
303 replace replace bindings which have an imported replacement
304 warn-override-core issue a warning for imports which override core bindings
305 and accept the override
306 first select the first encountered binding (override)
307 last select the last encountered binding (override)
309 These two are provided by the (oop goops) module:
311 merge-generics merge generic functions with a common name
312 into an <extended-generic>
313 merge-accessors merge accessors with a common name
315 The default duplicates handler is:
317 (replace warn-override-core warn last)
319 A recommended handler (which is likely to correspond to future Guile
320 behavior) can be installed with:
322 (default-duplicate-binding-handler '(replace warn-override-core check))
324 ** New define-module option: :replace
326 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
329 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
330 for the core binding `format'.
332 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
334 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
335 a prefix to all imported bindings.
338 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
340 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
343 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
345 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
346 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
347 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
349 ### move the rest to the manual
351 It is sometimes tempting to use GOOPS accessors with short names.
352 For example, it is tempting to use the name `x' for the x-coordinate
355 Assume that we work with a graphical package which needs to use two
356 independent vector packages for 2D and 3D vectors respectively. If
357 both packages export `x' we will encounter a name collision.
359 This can now be resolved automagically with the duplicates handler
360 `merge-generics' which gives the module system license to merge all
361 generic functions sharing a common name:
363 (define-module (math 2D-vectors)
364 :use-module (oop goops)
367 (define-module (math 3D-vectors)
368 :use-module (oop goops)
371 (define-module (my-module)
372 :use-module (math 2D-vectors)
373 :use-module (math 3D-vectors)
374 :duplicates merge-generics)
376 x in (my-module) will now share methods with x in both imported
379 There will, in fact, now be three distinct generic functions named
380 `x': x in (2D-vectors), x in (3D-vectors), and x in (my-module). The
381 last function will be an <extended-generic>, extending the previous
384 Let's call the imported generic functions the "ancestor functions". x
385 in (my-module) is, in turn, a "descendant function" of the imported
386 functions, extending its ancestors.
388 For any generic function G, the applicable methods are selected from
389 the union of the methods of the descendant functions, the methods of G
390 itself and the methods of the ancestor functions.
392 This, ancestor functions share methods with their descendants and vice
393 versa. This implies that x in (math 2D-vectors) can will share the
394 methods of x in (my-module) and vice versa, while x in (math 2D-vectors)
395 doesn't share the methods of x in (math 3D-vectors), thus preserving
398 Sharing is dynamic, so that adding new methods to a descendant implies
399 adding it to the ancestor.
401 If duplicates checking is desired in the above example, the following
402 form of the :duplicates option can be used instead:
404 :duplicates (merge-generics check)
406 ** New function: effective-version
408 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
409 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
410 to the distribution" above.
412 ** New feature, 'futures': future, make-future, future-ref
414 Futures are like promises, but begin execution immediately in a new
415 thread. See the "Futures" section in the reference manual.
417 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
419 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
420 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
422 ** Fair mutexes and condition variables
424 Fair mutexes and condition variables have been added. The fairness
425 means that scheduling is arranged to give as equal time shares as
426 possible and that threads are awakened in a first-in-first-out
427 manner. This is not guaranteed with standard mutexes and condition
430 In addition, fair mutexes are recursive. Locking a fair mutex that
431 you have already locked will succeed. Every call to lock-mutex must
432 be matched with a call to unlock-mutex. Only the last call to
433 unlock-mutex will actually unlock the mutex.
435 A fair condition variable must be used together with a fair mutex,
436 just as a standard condition variable must be used together with a
439 *** New functions: make-fair-mutex, make-fair-condition-variable'
441 Make a new fair mutex and a new fair condition variable respectively.
443 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
445 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
446 instead if blocking and indicate failure.
448 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
450 The funtion 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
451 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
454 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
456 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
458 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
460 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
461 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
462 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
465 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
466 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
467 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
470 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
471 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
473 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
475 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
476 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
479 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
480 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
482 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
483 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
484 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
485 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
486 level for the current thread.
488 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
490 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
492 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
493 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
496 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
498 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
500 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
503 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
505 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
508 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
509 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
510 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
512 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
513 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
514 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
515 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
526 ERROR: Numerical overflow
528 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
531 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
533 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
534 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
535 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
546 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
548 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
549 them is also done exactly, of course:
554 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
557 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
558 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
560 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
562 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
563 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
564 equal to a floating point number. For example:
566 (inexact->exact 1.234)
567 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
569 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitely:
571 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
574 ** New function 'rationalize'.
576 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
577 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
579 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
582 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
583 result when both its arguments are exact.
585 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
587 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
588 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
589 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
591 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
593 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
594 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
595 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
597 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
600 ** pretty-print has more options.
602 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
603 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
604 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
606 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
608 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
609 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
610 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
612 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
614 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
615 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
617 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
619 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
620 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
623 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
625 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
626 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
627 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
628 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
629 without the soft port blocking.
631 ** New debugging feature: breakpoints.
633 Guile now has breakpoints. For details see the `Debugging Features'
634 chapter in the reference manual.
636 ** Deprecated: undefine
638 There is no replacement for undefine.
640 * The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
641 have been discouraged.
643 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
644 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
645 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
648 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
651 * Changes to the C interface
653 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
655 This is a milder form of deprecation.
657 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
658 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
659 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
660 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
661 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
663 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
664 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
666 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
667 Scheme values has been added.
669 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
670 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
675 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
676 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
678 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
680 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
681 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
684 - SCM scm_from_<type>) (<type> val, ...)
686 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
687 scm_from_int for ints.
689 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
690 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
691 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
693 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
695 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
696 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
697 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
700 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
702 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
704 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
706 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
707 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
708 following alternatives.
710 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
711 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
712 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
713 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
715 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
716 do the validating for you.
718 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
719 have been discouraged.
721 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
722 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
725 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
727 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
728 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
731 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
733 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
736 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
739 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
741 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
742 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
744 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
745 scm_truncate_number should have.
747 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
748 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
750 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
753 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
754 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
755 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
757 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
758 easier to use from C.
760 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
761 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
763 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
764 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
765 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
768 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
769 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
770 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
771 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
774 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
775 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
776 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
777 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
778 and is thus quite efficient.
780 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
782 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
783 about the character encoding.
785 Replace according to the following table:
787 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
788 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
789 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
790 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
791 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
792 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
793 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
794 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
795 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
797 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
798 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
800 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
802 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
803 now also available to C code.
805 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
807 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
808 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
809 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
811 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
813 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
814 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
816 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
817 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
818 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
819 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
821 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
823 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
824 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
825 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
827 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
828 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
830 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
831 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
832 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
833 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
835 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
837 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
838 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
839 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
840 prevent a potential memory leak:
849 mem = scm_malloc (100);
850 scm_frame_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY);
852 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
853 SCM_FRAME_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
860 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITELY, MEM will be freed by
861 SCM_FRAME_END as well.
865 For full documentation, see the node "Frames" in the manual.
867 ** New function scm_frame_free
869 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a frame is left.
870 Thus the call to scm_frame_unwind_handler above could be replaced with
871 simply scm_frame_free (mem).
873 ** New way to block and unblock asyncs
875 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
876 scm_frame_block_asyncs in a 'frame' (see above). Likewise for
877 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_frame_unblock_asyncs.
879 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
881 C code can now use scm_frame_current_<foo>_port in a 'frame' (see
882 above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
884 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
886 C code can now use scm_frame_fluid in a 'frame' (see
887 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
889 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
891 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
892 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
893 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
895 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
897 You should not have used them.
899 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
901 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
902 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
904 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
906 This macro is not intended for public use.
908 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
910 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
912 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
914 Use scm_is_real instead.
916 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
918 Use scm_is_complex instead.
920 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
922 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
923 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
925 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
926 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
928 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
929 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
931 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
933 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
936 ** New function: scm_effective_version
938 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
939 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
940 to the distribution" above.
942 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
944 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
945 arguments are now passed directly:
947 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
949 This is an incompatible change.
951 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
953 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
954 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
955 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
957 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
958 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
960 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
962 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
964 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
965 function in the init section.
967 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
969 ** New macros SCM_VECTOR_REF and SCM_VECTOR_SET.
971 Use these in preference to SCM_VELTS.
973 ** The SCM_VELTS macros now returns a read-only vector. For writing,
974 use the new macros SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS or SCM_VECTOR_SET. The use of
975 SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS is discouraged, though.
977 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
979 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
980 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
981 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
982 stays roughly constant.
984 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
985 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
986 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
987 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
988 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
991 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
992 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
993 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
994 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
996 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
998 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
1000 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
1002 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
1003 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
1004 initializes a new cell (see below).
1006 ** New functions for memory management
1008 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
1009 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
1010 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
1011 cause aborts in long running programs.
1013 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
1014 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
1016 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
1017 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
1018 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
1019 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
1020 details and for upgrading instructions.
1022 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
1023 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
1024 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
1026 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
1028 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
1029 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
1030 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
1031 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
1032 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
1034 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
1035 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
1036 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
1038 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
1039 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
1041 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
1043 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
1044 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
1045 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
1046 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
1047 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
1049 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
1051 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
1054 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
1056 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
1058 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
1060 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
1061 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
1063 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
1065 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
1066 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
1068 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
1070 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
1071 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
1072 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
1073 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
1074 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
1075 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
1076 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
1077 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
1078 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
1079 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
1080 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1081 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
1082 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
1083 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
1084 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
1085 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
1086 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
1087 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1088 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
1089 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
1090 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
1091 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
1092 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
1093 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
1094 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
1095 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
1096 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
1097 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
1098 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
1099 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
1100 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
1103 Changes since Guile 1.4:
1105 * Changes to the distribution
1107 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
1109 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
1111 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
1112 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
1113 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
1114 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
1115 indicate major changes in Guile.
1117 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
1118 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
1119 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
1120 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
1122 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
1123 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
1124 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
1125 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
1126 micro version number.
1128 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
1130 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
1132 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
1133 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
1135 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
1137 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
1138 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
1139 See INSTALL and README for more information.
1141 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
1143 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
1144 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
1145 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
1148 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
1150 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
1153 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
1155 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
1156 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
1158 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
1160 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
1161 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
1164 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
1166 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
1169 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
1172 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
1174 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
1176 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
1177 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
1178 open-output-string, get-output-string.
1180 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
1182 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
1184 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
1187 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
1189 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
1191 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
1193 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
1194 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
1195 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
1197 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
1199 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
1201 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
1202 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
1211 See README there for more info.
1213 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
1214 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
1217 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
1219 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
1221 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
1223 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
1224 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
1225 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
1227 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
1229 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
1230 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
1231 to be named `and-let*', of course.
1233 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
1234 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
1236 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
1239 (oop goops describe)
1241 (oop goops active-slot)
1242 (oop goops composite-slot)
1244 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
1245 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
1246 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
1248 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
1250 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
1251 in the default environment:
1253 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
1254 %read-line write-line
1256 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
1257 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
1259 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
1261 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
1264 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
1265 can be used for similar functionality.
1267 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
1269 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
1270 it defines two procedures:
1272 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1274 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
1275 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1276 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
1279 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
1281 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
1282 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
1283 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
1284 write large strings.
1286 ** New module (ice-9 match)
1288 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
1289 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
1291 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
1293 for complete documentation.
1295 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
1297 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
1298 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
1299 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
1300 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
1302 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
1303 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
1307 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
1308 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
1309 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
1312 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
1315 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
1316 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
1318 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
1319 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
1322 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
1325 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
1327 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
1329 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1331 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
1333 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
1334 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
1335 Scheme programs easier.
1337 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
1338 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
1339 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
1340 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
1341 `cond-expand' when using this option.
1344 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
1345 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
1347 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
1350 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
1352 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
1353 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
1354 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
1357 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1359 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
1361 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
1362 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
1363 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
1364 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
1365 was also ASCII, for example.
1367 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
1369 tag - no replacement.
1370 fseek - replaced by seek.
1371 list* - replaced by cons*.
1373 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
1377 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
1378 (define m (make-safe-module))
1379 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
1380 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
1381 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
1383 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
1385 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
1386 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
1387 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
1389 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
1391 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
1392 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
1393 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
1394 from the issues related to the module system.
1396 *** New function: load-extension
1398 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
1400 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
1402 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
1403 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
1404 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
1406 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
1408 This function registers a initialization function for use by
1409 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
1410 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
1411 support dynamic linking).
1413 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
1415 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
1416 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
1417 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
1418 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
1421 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
1422 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
1423 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
1424 library and initialize it explicitely.
1426 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
1427 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
1429 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
1431 (define-module (foo bar))
1433 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
1435 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
1437 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
1438 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
1440 (scheme-report-environment 5)
1441 (null-environment 5)
1442 (interaction-environment)
1448 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
1450 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
1451 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
1452 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
1453 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
1455 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
1456 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
1457 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
1458 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
1459 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
1460 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
1461 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
1462 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
1463 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
1464 one eval to the next.
1466 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
1467 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
1468 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
1469 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
1470 subforms are at the top-level as well.
1472 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
1473 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
1474 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
1475 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
1476 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
1477 used in a lexical environment.
1479 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
1480 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
1481 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
1482 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
1483 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
1484 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
1486 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
1488 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
1489 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
1490 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
1491 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
1492 new facilities: selection and renaming.
1494 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
1495 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
1496 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
1498 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
1499 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
1501 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
1502 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
1503 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1505 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1506 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
1508 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
1509 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
1510 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
1511 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
1514 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1515 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
1516 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
1517 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1519 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1520 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1521 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
1523 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
1524 ;; and all four by upcasing.
1525 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
1526 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
1527 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
1529 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
1531 (remove-if . zonk-y)
1532 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
1533 :renamer upcase-symbol))
1535 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
1536 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
1537 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
1539 See manual for more info.
1541 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
1543 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
1544 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
1545 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
1547 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
1549 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
1550 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
1551 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
1553 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
1554 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
1555 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
1556 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
1558 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
1560 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
1561 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
1563 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
1564 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
1565 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
1566 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
1567 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
1570 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
1571 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
1572 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
1573 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
1574 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
1575 successful and #f if it wasn't.
1577 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
1578 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
1579 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
1580 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
1581 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
1583 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
1584 objects are usually permanent.
1586 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
1587 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
1589 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
1591 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
1592 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
1595 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
1599 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
1604 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
1606 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
1607 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
1608 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
1609 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
1611 ** New function `make-object-property'
1613 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
1614 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
1618 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
1619 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
1623 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
1624 source properties eventually.
1626 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
1628 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
1629 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
1630 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
1632 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
1633 will be removed in the next release.
1635 ** New define-module option: pure
1637 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
1642 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
1645 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
1647 Export names NAME1 ...
1649 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
1650 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
1654 (define-module (foo)
1656 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
1659 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
1664 ** New function: object->string OBJ
1666 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
1668 ** New function: port? X
1670 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
1671 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
1673 ** New function: file-port?
1675 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
1677 ** New function: port-for-each proc
1679 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
1680 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
1681 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
1682 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
1683 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
1685 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
1687 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
1688 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
1689 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
1690 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
1691 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
1694 ** New function: close-fdes fd
1696 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
1697 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
1698 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
1699 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
1702 ** New function: crypt password salt
1704 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
1707 ** New function: chroot path
1709 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
1711 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
1713 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
1716 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
1718 Get or set the priority of the running process.
1720 ** New function: getpass prompt
1722 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
1725 ** New function: flock file operation
1727 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
1729 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
1731 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
1734 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
1736 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
1737 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
1738 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
1739 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
1740 of the temporary file.
1742 ** New function: open-input-string string
1744 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
1745 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
1746 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
1748 ** New function: open-output-string
1750 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
1751 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
1753 ** New function: get-output-string
1755 Return the contents of an output string port.
1757 ** New function: identity
1759 Return the argument.
1761 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
1762 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
1764 ** New function: inet-pton family address
1766 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
1767 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
1768 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1771 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
1772 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
1774 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
1776 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
1777 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
1778 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
1781 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
1782 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
1783 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
1787 Use `identity' instead.
1793 ** Deprecated: return-it
1797 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
1799 Use `string-length' instead.
1801 ** Deprecated: flags
1803 Use `logior' instead.
1805 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
1807 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
1808 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
1809 port-for-each is more flexible.
1811 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
1812 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
1813 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
1815 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
1817 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
1819 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
1821 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
1823 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
1825 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
1826 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
1828 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
1829 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
1831 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
1832 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
1834 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
1836 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
1837 Removed function: builtin-bindings
1839 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
1840 Use module system operations for all variables.
1842 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
1844 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
1847 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
1849 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
1850 The following bugs have been fixed:
1852 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
1853 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
1856 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
1857 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
1858 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
1860 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
1861 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
1863 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
1864 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
1867 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
1868 The expansion used to be like so:
1870 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
1872 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
1874 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
1876 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
1877 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
1879 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
1881 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
1882 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
1883 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
1887 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
1888 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
1890 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
1895 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
1896 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
1898 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
1899 and `d', other keywords allowed.
1900 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
1902 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
1905 * Changes to the C interface
1907 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
1909 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
1910 with "_t". What a concept.
1912 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
1914 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
1916 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
1920 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
1921 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
1923 *** C Functions removed
1925 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
1926 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
1927 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
1928 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
1929 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
1930 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
1931 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
1933 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
1935 Use scm_mem2string instead.
1937 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
1939 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
1941 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
1942 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
1944 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
1946 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
1949 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
1951 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
1953 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
1955 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
1956 Evaluation" in the manual.
1958 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
1960 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
1961 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
1963 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
1965 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
1966 Constructors" in the manual.
1968 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
1970 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
1971 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
1973 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
1975 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
1977 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
1978 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
1979 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
1981 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
1983 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
1985 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
1986 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
1987 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
1990 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
1992 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
1994 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
1995 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
1997 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
1999 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
2000 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
2001 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
2002 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
2004 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
2005 scm_primitive_property_ref
2006 scm_primitive_property_set_x
2007 scm_primitive_property_del_x
2009 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
2010 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
2012 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
2014 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
2015 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
2016 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
2017 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
2019 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
2021 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
2022 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
2023 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
2024 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
2025 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
2026 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
2027 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
2029 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
2030 scm_remember_upto_here
2032 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
2034 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
2036 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
2037 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
2039 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
2041 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
2043 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
2045 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
2047 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
2049 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
2050 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
2051 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
2052 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
2053 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
2054 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
2056 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
2058 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2060 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
2061 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2062 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
2064 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
2066 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
2067 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
2068 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
2070 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
2072 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
2073 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
2076 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
2079 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
2080 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2083 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2085 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
2087 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
2089 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2091 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
2093 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
2095 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
2096 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
2097 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
2098 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
2099 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
2100 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
2101 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
2102 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
2103 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
2104 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
2105 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
2106 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
2107 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
2108 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
2109 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
2111 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
2112 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
2113 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
2114 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
2115 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
2116 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
2117 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
2118 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
2119 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
2120 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
2121 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
2122 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
2123 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
2124 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
2125 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
2126 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
2127 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
2128 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
2129 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
2130 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
2131 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
2132 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
2133 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
2134 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
2135 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
2136 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
2137 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
2138 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
2139 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
2141 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
2143 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
2145 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
2146 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
2148 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
2150 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
2152 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
2154 Use scm_string_hash instead.
2156 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
2158 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
2160 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
2162 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
2164 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
2167 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
2168 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
2170 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
2172 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
2174 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
2176 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
2178 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
2180 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
2182 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
2184 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
2187 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
2189 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
2191 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
2193 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
2194 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
2196 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
2197 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
2199 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
2201 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
2202 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
2203 scm_module_define, scm_define.
2205 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
2207 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
2209 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
2210 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
2212 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
2213 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
2214 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
2215 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
2217 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
2218 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
2219 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
2221 Use the new ones from above instead.
2223 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
2225 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
2226 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
2227 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
2229 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
2230 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
2232 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
2233 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
2236 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
2237 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
2239 Use the new functions instead.
2241 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
2244 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
2246 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
2248 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
2251 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
2253 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
2256 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
2258 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
2261 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
2262 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
2263 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
2265 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
2267 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
2268 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
2270 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
2271 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
2272 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
2273 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
2276 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
2278 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
2279 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
2280 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
2281 inexact for an exact.
2283 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
2284 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
2285 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
2288 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
2289 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
2290 accept an inexact argument.
2292 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
2293 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
2295 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
2298 ** New number validation macros:
2299 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
2303 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
2305 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
2306 scm_unprotect_object.
2308 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
2310 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
2312 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
2315 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
2317 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
2321 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
2323 * Changes to the distribution
2325 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
2327 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
2328 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
2329 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
2330 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
2331 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
2332 obtain these programs.
2333 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
2334 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
2336 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
2337 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
2338 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
2339 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
2340 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
2342 However, this approach means that minor differences between
2343 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
2344 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
2345 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
2349 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
2352 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
2353 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
2354 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
2355 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
2357 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
2359 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
2361 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
2362 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
2364 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
2365 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
2367 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
2368 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
2370 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
2371 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
2372 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
2373 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
2375 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
2377 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
2381 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
2382 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
2384 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
2386 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
2387 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
2389 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
2390 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
2391 number of objects of that kind.
2393 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
2395 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
2396 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
2397 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
2398 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
2399 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
2401 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
2403 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
2405 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
2407 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
2410 ** New module (ice-9 time)
2412 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
2414 ** New module (ice-9 history)
2416 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
2418 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2420 ** New command line option --debug
2422 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
2424 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
2426 ** New help facility
2428 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
2429 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
2430 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
2431 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
2432 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
2433 (help) gives this text
2435 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
2436 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
2438 Examples: (help help)
2440 (help "output-string")
2442 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
2444 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
2446 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
2447 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
2450 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
2451 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
2452 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
2455 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
2456 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
2457 use absolute filenames when possible.
2459 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
2460 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
2461 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
2464 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
2466 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
2467 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
2468 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
2469 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
2471 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
2473 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
2475 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
2476 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
2477 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
2479 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
2480 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
2481 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
2483 (read-enable 'positions)
2484 (debug-enable 'debug)
2486 ** Backtraces in scripts
2488 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
2492 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
2494 at the top of the script.
2496 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
2497 The second enables backtraces.)
2499 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
2501 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
2502 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
2503 substantially faster than before.
2505 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
2506 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
2508 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
2509 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
2511 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
2513 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
2514 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
2515 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
2517 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
2518 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
2519 when this hook is run in the future.
2521 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
2522 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
2524 ** Improvements to garbage collector
2526 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
2527 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
2530 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
2531 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
2532 more and more memory for certain programs.)
2534 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
2535 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
2537 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
2538 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
2540 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
2541 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
2542 in order not to need further allocation.)
2544 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
2547 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
2548 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
2549 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
2550 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
2552 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
2554 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
2557 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
2559 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
2562 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
2563 GC in percent of total heap size
2566 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
2567 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
2569 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
2571 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
2572 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
2574 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
2576 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
2577 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
2579 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
2581 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
2582 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
2586 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
2587 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
2589 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
2591 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2593 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
2595 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
2597 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
2599 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
2600 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
2602 (simple-format port message . args)
2603 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
2604 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
2605 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
2606 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
2607 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
2608 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
2609 Does not add a trailing newline."
2611 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
2613 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
2614 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
2616 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
2617 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
2619 ** Deprecated: list*
2621 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
2623 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
2625 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
2626 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
2628 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
2629 is returned as result.
2631 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
2633 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
2635 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
2637 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
2638 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
2641 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
2643 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
2645 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
2646 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
2648 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2650 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
2652 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
2654 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2656 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
2658 Thanks to Greg Badros!
2660 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2662 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
2663 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
2664 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
2666 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
2669 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
2671 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
2672 the readability of argument checking.
2674 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
2676 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
2678 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
2680 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
2681 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
2682 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
2683 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
2684 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
2685 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
2686 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
2688 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
2690 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
2692 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
2693 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
2695 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
2697 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
2698 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
2701 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
2703 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
2704 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
2705 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
2707 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
2708 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
2709 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
2711 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
2712 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
2713 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
2714 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
2715 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
2716 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
2717 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
2719 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
2720 scm_end_input (object);
2721 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
2722 ptob->flush (object);
2724 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
2725 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
2728 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
2730 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
2732 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
2733 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
2734 removed in a future version.
2736 ** The format of error message strings has changed
2738 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
2739 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
2740 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
2741 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
2743 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
2744 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
2746 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
2749 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
2751 in your configure.in.
2753 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
2758 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
2764 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
2766 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
2770 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
2771 (define make-message string-append)
2773 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
2775 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
2779 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
2784 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
2788 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
2790 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
2791 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
2793 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
2795 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
2796 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
2797 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
2798 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
2799 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
2800 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
2802 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
2803 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
2804 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
2806 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
2807 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
2808 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
2811 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
2812 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
2813 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
2814 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
2815 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
2817 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
2818 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
2819 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
2820 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
2821 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
2822 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
2823 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
2825 Destructors are not yet implemented.
2827 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
2828 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
2829 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
2831 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
2832 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
2833 KEY in the calling thread.
2835 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
2836 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
2837 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
2838 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
2839 associated with the key.
2841 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
2843 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
2844 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
2846 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
2848 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
2849 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
2850 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
2852 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
2854 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
2855 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
2857 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
2859 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
2861 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
2862 returned is undefined.
2864 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
2865 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
2866 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
2868 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
2869 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
2870 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
2872 ** New C level GC hooks
2874 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
2876 scm_before_gc_c_hook
2879 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
2880 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
2881 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
2883 scm_before_mark_c_hook
2884 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
2885 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
2887 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
2888 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
2891 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
2893 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
2894 allocation parameters
2896 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
2897 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
2898 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
2902 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
2903 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
2904 scm_default_max_segment_size
2906 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
2908 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
2909 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
2911 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
2913 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
2914 object and count on the object being protected until
2915 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
2917 The functions also have better time complexity.
2919 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
2920 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
2921 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
2922 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
2923 are no longer needed.
2925 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
2927 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
2928 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
2929 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
2930 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
2932 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
2934 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
2936 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
2938 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
2939 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
2940 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
2941 until this issue has been settled.
2943 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
2945 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
2947 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
2950 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
2952 * Changes to system call interfaces:
2954 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
2955 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
2956 descriptors were checked.
2958 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
2959 atomically written to a pipe.
2961 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
2962 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
2963 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
2964 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
2965 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
2966 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
2967 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
2970 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
2971 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
2972 is changed without calling tzset.
2974 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
2976 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
2977 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
2978 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
2980 (define write-network-long
2981 (lambda (value port)
2982 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
2983 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
2984 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
2986 (define read-network-long
2988 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
2989 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
2990 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
2992 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
2993 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
2995 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
2996 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
2997 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
2998 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
3000 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
3001 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
3002 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
3003 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
3007 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
3009 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3013 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
3014 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
3015 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
3021 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
3022 for a description of available commands.
3024 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
3025 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
3026 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
3028 (debug-enable 'backwards)
3030 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
3031 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
3033 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
3035 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
3037 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
3038 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
3039 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
3040 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
3041 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
3042 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
3045 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
3047 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
3048 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
3049 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
3050 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
3052 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
3053 the file and should not be affected by this change.
3055 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
3057 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3059 ** Readline support has changed again.
3061 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
3062 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
3063 to activate readline is now
3065 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
3068 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
3070 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
3071 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
3072 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
3075 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
3076 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
3077 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
3080 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
3081 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
3082 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
3083 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
3084 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
3085 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
3087 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
3088 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
3090 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
3092 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
3093 object it receives is the same string passed to
3094 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
3095 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
3096 string, not the suffix.
3098 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
3099 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
3100 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
3102 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
3104 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
3105 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
3106 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
3107 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
3110 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3112 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
3114 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
3115 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
3116 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
3117 appear from left to right.
3119 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
3122 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
3124 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
3125 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
3127 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
3131 *** New function: hook? OBJ
3133 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
3135 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
3137 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
3138 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
3139 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
3141 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
3143 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
3145 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
3147 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
3150 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
3152 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
3153 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
3154 mentioning it here anyway.
3156 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
3158 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
3159 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
3160 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
3161 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
3164 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
3166 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
3168 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
3170 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
3171 otherwise return #f.
3173 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
3175 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
3176 returned by `opendir'.
3178 ** New function: using-readline?
3180 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
3182 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3184 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
3185 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3187 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3189 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
3191 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
3192 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
3193 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
3195 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
3197 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
3198 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
3200 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
3202 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
3203 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
3204 documentation slots are not yet used.
3206 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
3208 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
3209 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
3210 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
3215 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
3216 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
3217 (string-append x y))
3219 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
3220 can also be used for concatenating strings.
3222 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
3223 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
3224 be made in a clean way.]
3226 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
3228 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3230 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
3232 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
3233 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
3235 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3237 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
3239 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3241 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3243 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
3244 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
3245 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
3246 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
3249 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3251 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
3253 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
3255 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
3257 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
3258 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
3260 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
3262 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
3264 Evaluates the body of a special form.
3266 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
3268 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
3269 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
3270 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
3271 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
3272 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
3273 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
3275 This should not make any difference for most users.
3277 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
3279 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
3280 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
3282 *** New functions for applying generic functions
3284 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
3285 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
3286 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
3287 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
3288 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
3290 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
3292 It is now replaced by:
3294 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
3296 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3297 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3299 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3301 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
3302 This might change when we get the new module system.
3304 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
3308 Changes since Guile 1.3:
3310 * Changes to mailing lists
3312 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
3314 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
3317 * Changes to the distribution
3319 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
3321 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
3322 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
3323 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
3324 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
3325 you explicitly specify it.
3327 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
3328 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
3329 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
3330 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
3331 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
3334 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
3335 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
3336 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
3337 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
3339 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
3340 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
3341 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
3344 You can activate the readline support by issuing
3346 (use-modules (readline-activator))
3349 from your ".guile" file, for example.
3351 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3353 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
3354 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
3355 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
3356 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
3358 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
3359 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
3362 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3364 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
3365 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
3366 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
3367 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
3368 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
3369 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
3370 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
3371 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
3383 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
3384 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
3385 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
3386 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
3387 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
3392 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
3393 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
3401 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
3406 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
3407 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
3410 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
3411 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
3412 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
3413 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
3415 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
3417 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
3419 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
3420 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
3422 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
3424 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
3426 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
3427 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
3429 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
3432 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
3434 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
3436 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
3438 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
3440 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
3442 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
3444 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
3445 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
3446 when the hook was created.
3448 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
3449 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
3450 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
3451 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
3452 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
3453 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
3454 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
3455 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
3456 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
3458 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
3459 the dlopen family of functions.
3461 ** New function `provided?'
3463 - Function: provided? FEATURE
3464 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
3465 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
3466 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
3468 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
3470 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
3471 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
3472 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
3473 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3476 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
3477 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
3478 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
3479 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
3481 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
3482 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
3483 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
3486 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
3487 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
3488 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
3489 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
3490 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
3491 but with the flag set.
3493 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
3495 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
3496 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
3498 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
3499 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
3500 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
3501 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
3502 available Scheme format implementations.
3504 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
3505 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
3506 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
3507 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
3508 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
3509 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
3510 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
3511 output is to the current error port if available by the
3512 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
3515 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
3516 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
3517 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
3518 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
3519 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
3520 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
3521 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
3522 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
3524 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
3525 be executed at a time.
3528 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
3530 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
3531 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
3532 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
3534 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
3535 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
3536 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
3537 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
3538 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
3539 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
3540 general form of a directive is:
3542 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
3544 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
3546 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3548 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
3549 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
3550 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
3553 Any (print as `display' does).
3557 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
3561 S-expression (print as `write' does).
3565 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
3571 print number sign always.
3574 print comma separated.
3576 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
3582 print number sign always.
3585 print comma separated.
3587 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
3593 print number sign always.
3596 print comma separated.
3598 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
3604 print number sign always.
3607 print comma separated.
3609 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
3614 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
3618 print a number as a Roman numeral.
3621 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
3624 print a number as an ordinal English number.
3627 print a number as a cardinal English number.
3632 prints `y' and `ies'.
3635 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3638 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
3643 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
3647 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
3650 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
3651 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
3653 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3656 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
3657 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
3659 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3662 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
3664 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
3666 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3669 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
3671 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
3673 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
3676 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
3679 The sign appears before the padding.
3687 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
3689 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
3694 print N page separators.
3704 newline is ignored, white space left.
3707 newline is left, white space ignored.
3712 relative tabulation.
3718 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
3720 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
3723 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
3725 converts by `string-capitalize'.
3728 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
3731 converts by `string-upcase'.
3734 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
3736 jumps N arguments forward.
3739 jumps 1 argument backward.
3742 jumps N arguments backward.
3745 jumps to the 0th argument.
3748 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
3750 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
3751 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
3753 take argument from N.
3756 true test conditional.
3759 if-else-then conditional.
3765 default clause follows.
3768 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
3770 at most N iterations.
3773 args from next arg (a list of lists).
3776 args from the rest of arguments.
3779 args from the rest args (lists).
3790 aborts if N <= M <= K
3792 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
3795 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3798 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
3804 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
3806 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
3808 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
3809 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
3810 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
3811 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
3812 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
3813 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
3817 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
3821 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
3827 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
3830 Print a `#\space' character
3832 print N `#\space' characters.
3835 Print a `#\tab' character
3837 print N `#\tab' characters.
3840 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
3841 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
3842 must be a positive decimal number.
3845 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3846 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3847 be processed by `read'.
3850 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
3851 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
3852 be processed by `read'.
3855 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
3858 prints format version.
3861 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
3862 and format it accordingly.
3864 *** Configuration Variables
3866 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
3867 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
3868 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
3869 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
3872 format:symbol-case-conv
3873 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
3874 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
3875 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
3876 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
3877 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
3879 format:iobj-case-conv
3880 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
3881 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
3884 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
3887 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
3893 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
3894 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
3895 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
3896 `format' padding style.
3899 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
3900 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
3901 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
3902 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
3906 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
3907 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
3908 directive parameters or modifiers)).
3911 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
3912 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
3913 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
3914 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
3915 parameters or modifiers)).
3918 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
3920 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
3922 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
3923 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
3925 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
3926 string-downcase! functions.
3928 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
3929 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
3931 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
3934 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
3937 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
3938 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
3940 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
3942 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
3943 the symbol had be read by `read'.
3945 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
3946 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
3947 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
3948 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
3949 would if STRING were input.
3951 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
3953 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
3954 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
3955 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
3956 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
3959 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
3961 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
3962 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
3965 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
3967 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
3968 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
3970 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
3971 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
3973 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
3974 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
3975 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
3976 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
3978 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
3979 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
3981 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
3982 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
3983 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
3985 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
3986 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
3988 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
3989 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
3990 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
3991 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
3992 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
3994 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
3995 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
3996 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
3997 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
3998 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
3999 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
4001 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
4002 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
4003 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
4006 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
4007 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
4008 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
4009 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
4010 the following grammar:
4011 ((apples (single-char #\a))
4012 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
4013 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
4014 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
4015 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
4016 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
4017 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
4018 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
4019 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
4020 last option in its combination)
4022 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
4023 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
4024 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
4025 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
4027 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
4028 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
4029 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
4031 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4032 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
4033 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
4035 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
4036 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
4037 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
4038 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
4039 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
4040 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
4041 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
4042 ordinary argument strings.
4044 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
4045 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
4046 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
4047 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
4049 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
4050 as a list, associated with the empty list.
4052 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
4053 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
4054 - a required option is omitted
4055 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
4056 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
4057 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
4058 - an option predicate fails
4063 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
4066 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
4067 (verbose (required? #f)
4070 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
4071 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
4072 (predicate ,string?))))
4074 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
4075 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4077 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
4078 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
4079 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
4080 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
4083 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
4085 It will be removed in a few releases.
4087 ** New syntax: lambda*
4088 ** New syntax: define*
4089 ** New syntax: define*-public
4090 ** New syntax: defmacro*
4091 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
4092 Guile now supports optional arguments.
4094 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
4095 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
4096 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
4097 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
4098 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
4100 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
4101 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
4102 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
4104 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
4106 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
4107 and examples for `lambda*':
4110 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
4112 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
4113 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
4114 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
4115 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
4116 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
4117 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
4118 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
4119 can be checked with the bound? macro.
4121 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
4123 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
4124 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
4125 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
4126 are given as keywords are bound to values.
4128 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
4129 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
4130 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
4131 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
4132 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
4133 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
4134 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
4135 and until the procedure is called.
4137 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
4139 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
4140 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
4141 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
4142 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
4143 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
4144 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
4145 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
4146 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
4147 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
4148 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
4150 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
4151 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
4152 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
4153 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
4156 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
4158 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
4159 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
4160 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
4161 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
4163 ** New syntax: and-let*
4164 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
4166 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
4167 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
4168 (<variable> <expression>)
4171 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
4172 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
4173 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
4176 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
4177 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
4178 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
4179 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
4180 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
4181 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
4182 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
4184 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
4185 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
4186 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
4187 shadow earlier bindings.
4189 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
4191 ** New sorting functions
4193 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
4194 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
4195 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
4196 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
4198 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
4199 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
4202 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4203 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
4204 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
4206 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
4207 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
4208 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
4209 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
4211 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
4212 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
4213 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
4214 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
4215 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
4218 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4219 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
4220 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
4221 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
4222 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
4223 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
4225 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
4226 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
4227 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
4229 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
4230 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
4231 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
4234 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
4235 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
4236 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
4238 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
4239 Added for compatibility with scsh.
4241 ** New built-in random number support
4243 *** New function: random N [STATE]
4244 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
4245 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
4246 returned have a uniform distribution.
4248 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
4249 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
4250 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
4251 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
4252 effect of the `random' operation.
4254 *** New variable: *random-state*
4255 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
4256 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
4257 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
4258 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
4259 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
4262 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
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 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
4266 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
4268 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
4269 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
4270 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
4271 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
4272 initialized using SEED.
4274 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
4275 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
4276 range between 0 and 1.
4278 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4279 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
4280 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
4281 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
4282 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
4283 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
4284 or a uniform vector of doubles.
4286 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
4287 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
4288 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
4289 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
4290 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
4291 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4293 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
4294 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
4295 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
4296 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
4298 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
4299 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
4300 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
4301 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
4303 *** New function: random:exp STATE
4304 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
4305 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
4307 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
4309 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
4312 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
4313 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
4316 ** New function: make-guardian
4317 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
4318 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
4319 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
4320 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
4321 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
4323 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
4324 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
4325 one object if at all.
4327 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
4328 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
4329 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
4331 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
4332 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
4333 read again in last-in first-out order.
4335 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
4336 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
4338 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
4340 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
4341 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
4342 file position is used.
4344 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
4345 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
4346 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
4348 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
4349 redefined using seek.
4351 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
4352 size is not supplied.
4354 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
4355 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
4357 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
4358 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
4360 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
4362 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
4363 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
4364 and returns the contents as a single string.
4366 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
4367 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
4368 lists in serial order.
4370 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
4371 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
4372 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
4374 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
4375 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
4376 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
4377 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
4379 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
4380 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
4381 and #f if an error occured.
4383 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
4385 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
4386 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
4387 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
4388 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
4390 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
4392 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
4395 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
4397 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
4400 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4404 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
4405 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
4407 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
4408 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
4412 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4414 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
4416 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
4417 binds a variable named NAME to it.
4419 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
4421 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
4422 might change when we get the new module system.
4424 ** The smob interface
4426 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
4427 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
4429 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
4431 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
4435 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
4436 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
4437 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
4438 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
4439 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
4440 will be freed by the default free function.
4442 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4443 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
4444 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4445 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4447 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
4448 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
4449 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4450 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4452 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
4454 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
4455 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
4459 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
4460 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4461 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4463 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
4464 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
4465 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
4466 `scm_make_smob_type'.
4468 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
4469 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
4470 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
4472 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
4473 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
4474 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
4475 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
4477 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
4478 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
4479 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
4481 *** scm_newptob has been removed
4485 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
4487 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
4488 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
4489 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
4491 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
4492 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
4493 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
4495 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
4496 a string port's buffer.
4498 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
4499 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
4500 function pointers which together define the current random number
4501 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
4502 number library functions.
4504 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
4507 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
4508 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
4511 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
4512 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4514 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
4515 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
4517 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
4518 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
4521 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
4522 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
4523 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
4524 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
4526 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
4527 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
4528 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
4529 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
4530 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
4531 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
4532 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
4534 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
4535 by libguile and the application.
4537 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4538 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
4539 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
4540 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
4542 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
4543 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
4545 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
4546 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
4547 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
4549 ** Random number library functions
4550 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
4551 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
4552 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
4554 The default random state is stored in:
4556 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
4557 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
4558 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
4563 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
4565 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
4566 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
4567 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
4568 isn't a random state.
4570 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
4571 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
4573 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
4574 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
4575 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
4576 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
4578 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4579 Return 32 random bits.
4581 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4582 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
4584 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4585 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
4587 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
4588 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
4590 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
4591 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4593 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
4594 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
4595 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
4599 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
4601 * Changes to the distribution
4603 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
4604 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
4605 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
4608 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
4609 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
4610 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
4612 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
4613 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
4614 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
4615 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
4618 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
4619 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
4620 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
4622 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4624 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
4626 *** Function: batch-mode?
4628 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
4631 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
4633 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
4634 case has not been implemented.
4636 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
4637 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
4638 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
4641 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
4642 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
4644 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
4646 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4648 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
4650 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
4651 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
4654 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
4655 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
4656 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
4657 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
4660 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
4662 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
4663 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
4664 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
4665 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
4666 find those libraries.
4668 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
4669 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
4672 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
4674 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
4675 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
4676 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
4677 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
4679 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
4680 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
4681 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
4685 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
4687 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
4688 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
4689 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
4692 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
4693 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
4694 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
4695 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
4697 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
4698 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
4701 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
4702 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
4703 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
4704 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
4705 compiler where to find the libraries.
4707 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
4708 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
4709 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
4711 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
4712 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
4713 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
4714 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
4715 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
4719 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4721 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
4722 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
4723 internationalization support.
4725 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
4726 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
4727 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
4728 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
4729 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
4731 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
4732 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
4733 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
4734 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
4735 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
4737 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
4738 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
4739 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
4740 any GNU mirror site.
4742 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
4744 ** New function: add-history STRING
4745 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
4746 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
4747 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
4749 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
4751 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
4752 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
4753 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
4756 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
4757 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
4758 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
4760 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
4762 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
4765 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
4766 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
4769 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
4770 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
4771 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
4772 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
4773 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
4774 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
4776 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
4777 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
4778 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
4779 of the form mentioned above.
4781 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
4782 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
4783 returned in the special `rest' list.
4785 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
4786 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
4788 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
4790 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
4792 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
4794 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
4795 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
4796 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
4797 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
4798 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
4799 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
4800 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
4801 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
4804 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
4806 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
4808 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
4809 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
4812 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
4813 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
4814 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
4818 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
4819 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
4820 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
4821 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
4822 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
4823 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
4824 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
4825 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
4828 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
4830 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
4831 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
4832 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
4834 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
4836 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
4837 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
4839 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
4840 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
4841 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
4843 Why do we have this function?
4844 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
4845 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
4846 primitive, and display it differently, and
4847 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
4848 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
4851 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
4852 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
4855 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
4856 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
4857 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
4858 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
4860 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
4861 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
4864 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
4865 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
4867 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
4869 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
4870 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
4871 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
4872 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
4873 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
4874 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
4875 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
4878 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
4880 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
4881 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
4883 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
4884 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
4885 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
4886 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
4887 properly continue the print chain.
4889 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
4890 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
4891 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
4892 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
4893 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
4894 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
4895 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
4896 print-state, it is simply ignored.
4898 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
4899 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
4900 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
4901 safest to not check for these pairs.
4903 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
4904 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
4905 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
4906 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
4908 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
4910 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
4911 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
4913 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
4915 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
4917 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
4918 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
4919 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
4921 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
4922 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
4923 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
4925 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
4926 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
4927 the following functions and macros:
4929 Function: make-fluid
4931 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
4932 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
4933 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
4934 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
4935 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
4937 Function: fluid? OBJ
4939 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
4941 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
4942 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
4944 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
4945 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
4947 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
4949 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
4950 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
4951 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
4952 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
4953 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
4954 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
4955 modified by `with-fluids*'.
4957 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
4959 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
4960 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
4961 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
4962 should evaluate to a fluid.
4964 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
4966 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
4967 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
4968 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
4969 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
4970 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
4972 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
4975 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
4977 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
4979 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
4981 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
4984 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
4985 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
4986 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
4987 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
4988 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
4991 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
4992 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
4993 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
4995 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
4996 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
4997 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
4999 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
5000 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
5001 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5002 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
5004 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
5005 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
5006 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
5007 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
5009 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
5010 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
5011 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
5012 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
5014 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
5015 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
5016 their revealed counts set to zero.
5018 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5019 Returns an integer file descriptor.
5021 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5022 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
5024 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5025 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
5027 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
5028 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
5029 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
5031 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
5032 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
5033 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
5035 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
5036 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
5037 default environment inherited by child processes.
5039 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
5040 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
5041 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
5043 The return value is unspecified.
5045 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
5046 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
5047 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
5048 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
5049 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
5051 The return value is unspecified.
5053 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
5054 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
5062 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
5063 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
5066 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
5069 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
5070 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
5071 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
5073 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
5074 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
5075 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
5076 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
5079 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
5080 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
5082 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
5083 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
5084 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
5085 the `environ' procedure.
5087 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
5088 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
5091 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
5092 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
5094 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
5095 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
5096 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
5097 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
5099 *** procedure: times
5100 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
5101 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
5102 return a selected component:
5105 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
5109 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
5112 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
5116 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
5117 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
5121 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
5122 terminated child processes.
5124 ** Removed: list-length
5125 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
5126 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
5128 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
5130 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
5132 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
5134 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
5135 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
5136 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
5137 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
5139 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
5140 extra complexity it introduces.
5142 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
5143 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
5145 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
5146 variable to any non-empty value.
5148 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
5149 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
5151 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5153 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
5154 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
5156 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
5158 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
5159 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
5161 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
5163 ** vector handling routines
5165 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
5166 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
5167 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
5168 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
5169 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
5171 ** pair and list routines
5173 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
5176 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
5178 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
5181 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5183 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
5185 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
5186 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
5187 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
5188 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
5189 site-specific initialization code.
5191 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
5192 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
5193 initialization processes.
5195 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
5196 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
5197 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
5198 initialized properly.
5200 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
5201 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
5202 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
5204 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
5205 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
5206 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
5207 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
5208 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
5210 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
5212 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
5213 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
5214 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
5215 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
5216 objects the smob refers to get marked.
5218 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
5219 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
5220 which look like this:
5223 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
5225 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
5226 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
5229 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
5230 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
5233 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
5235 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
5236 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
5237 you will need to change your functions slightly.
5239 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
5240 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
5241 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
5242 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
5243 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
5245 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
5246 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
5248 int (*free) (SCM port);
5249 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
5250 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
5251 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
5255 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
5256 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
5257 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
5259 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
5262 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
5263 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
5264 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
5266 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
5267 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
5268 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
5271 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
5275 struct timeval *timeout);
5277 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
5278 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
5279 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
5280 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
5281 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
5282 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
5284 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
5285 scm_catch_body_t body,
5287 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5290 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
5291 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
5292 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
5293 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
5294 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
5295 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
5297 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
5299 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
5302 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
5303 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
5304 spawning threads from application C code.
5306 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
5307 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
5308 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
5309 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
5310 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
5311 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
5313 ** Removed functions:
5315 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
5316 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
5318 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
5320 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
5321 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
5323 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
5325 ** mbstrings are now removed
5327 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
5328 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
5330 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
5332 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
5333 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
5334 their new names and arguments:
5336 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
5337 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
5338 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
5339 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
5342 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
5344 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
5346 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
5349 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
5351 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
5352 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
5353 pass a #f arg to catch.
5355 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
5357 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
5358 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
5361 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
5362 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
5363 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
5364 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
5365 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
5366 reclaim its storage.
5368 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
5369 worrying that some other function you call will call
5370 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
5371 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
5372 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
5373 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
5376 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
5378 * Changes to the distribution
5380 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
5381 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
5384 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
5385 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
5387 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5388 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
5390 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
5392 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
5393 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
5394 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
5396 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5398 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
5399 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
5400 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
5401 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
5402 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
5403 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
5405 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
5406 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
5407 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
5410 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
5411 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
5412 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
5413 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
5415 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
5416 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
5417 libraries to your link command:
5419 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
5420 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
5421 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
5422 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
5424 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
5425 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
5426 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
5428 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5430 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
5431 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
5434 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
5436 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
5437 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
5438 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
5439 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
5440 searched is system dependent.
5442 (dynamic-object? VAL)
5444 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
5446 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
5448 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
5449 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
5451 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5453 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
5454 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
5455 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
5456 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
5457 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
5460 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
5462 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
5463 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
5464 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
5465 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
5466 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
5468 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
5470 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
5471 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
5473 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
5475 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
5476 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
5477 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
5480 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
5482 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
5483 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
5484 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
5485 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
5487 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
5488 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
5490 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
5492 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
5493 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
5495 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
5497 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
5498 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
5506 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
5508 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
5509 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
5510 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
5511 a more informative way.
5513 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
5514 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
5515 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
5516 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
5517 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
5518 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
5520 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
5521 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
5524 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
5525 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
5526 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
5529 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
5530 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
5531 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
5532 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
5533 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
5534 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
5536 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
5537 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
5538 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
5539 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
5542 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
5543 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
5544 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
5545 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
5546 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
5547 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
5549 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
5550 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
5551 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
5552 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
5553 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
5555 *** regexp functions
5557 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
5558 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
5559 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
5561 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
5562 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
5563 with SCSH regular expressions.
5565 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
5566 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
5567 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
5568 position of STR at which to begin matching.
5570 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
5571 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
5572 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
5573 `string-match' returns `#f'.
5575 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
5576 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
5577 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
5578 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
5579 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
5580 match strings against the compiled regexp.
5582 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
5583 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
5584 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
5585 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
5586 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
5588 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5590 **** Constant: regexp/extended
5591 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
5592 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
5593 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
5595 **** Constant: regexp/icase
5596 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
5597 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
5599 **** Constant: regexp/newline
5600 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
5602 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
5605 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
5606 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5607 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
5609 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
5610 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
5611 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
5613 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
5614 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
5615 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
5616 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
5617 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
5620 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
5622 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
5623 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
5624 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
5625 used when different portions of a string are passed to
5626 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
5627 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
5629 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
5630 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
5631 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
5633 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
5634 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
5637 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
5638 and replace them with the contents of another string.
5640 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
5641 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
5642 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
5643 may be one of the following arguments:
5645 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
5647 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
5649 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
5650 the regexp match is written.
5652 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
5653 following the regexp match is written.
5655 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
5656 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
5659 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
5660 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
5661 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
5662 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
5663 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
5664 which should be matched against this regular expression.
5666 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
5669 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
5670 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
5671 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
5672 written out to PORT.
5674 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
5675 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
5676 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
5677 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
5678 will return after processing a single match.
5680 *** Match Structures
5682 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
5683 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
5684 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
5685 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
5686 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
5687 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
5690 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
5691 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
5692 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
5693 information about the original target string that was matched against a
5694 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
5696 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
5697 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
5698 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
5700 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
5701 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
5702 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
5703 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
5704 number N did not match, return `#f'.
5706 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
5707 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
5709 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
5710 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
5712 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
5713 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
5715 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
5716 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
5718 **** Function: match:count MATCH
5719 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
5720 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
5721 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
5723 **** Function: match:string MATCH
5724 Return the original TARGET string.
5726 *** Backslash Escapes
5728 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
5729 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
5730 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
5731 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
5732 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
5733 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
5735 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
5736 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
5737 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
5738 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
5739 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
5740 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
5741 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
5742 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
5744 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
5745 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
5746 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
5747 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
5748 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
5749 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
5750 each match a single backslash in the target string.
5752 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
5753 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
5754 return the resulting string.
5756 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
5757 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
5758 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
5759 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
5760 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
5761 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
5762 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
5763 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
5764 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
5765 translated to the single character `*'.
5767 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
5768 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
5769 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
5770 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
5771 consecutive backslashes:
5773 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
5775 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
5776 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
5777 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
5779 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
5780 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
5781 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
5782 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
5783 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
5784 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
5786 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
5788 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
5789 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
5790 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
5791 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
5792 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
5793 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
5794 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
5795 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
5796 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
5797 cumbersome escape syntax.
5799 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5801 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5803 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5805 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
5808 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
5810 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
5812 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
5815 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
5816 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
5817 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
5818 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
5819 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
5821 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
5822 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
5823 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
5824 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
5825 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
5826 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
5827 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
5830 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
5831 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
5832 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
5835 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
5836 `force-output' on every port open for output.
5838 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
5839 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
5840 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
5841 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
5842 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
5843 installed, you can say:
5845 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
5848 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5850 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
5851 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
5852 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
5853 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
5854 new dynamic roots and threads.
5857 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
5859 * Changes to the distribution.
5861 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
5863 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
5864 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
5865 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
5866 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
5867 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
5868 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
5869 programming language. These are packaged together because the
5870 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
5872 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
5875 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
5876 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
5881 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5883 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
5884 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
5886 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
5887 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
5888 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
5889 the (command-line) function.
5890 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
5891 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
5892 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
5894 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
5895 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
5896 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
5897 command line arguments
5898 -ds do -s script at this point
5899 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
5900 -h, --help display this help and exit
5901 -v, --version display version information and exit
5902 \ read arguments from following script lines
5904 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
5905 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
5907 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5910 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5914 (main (command-line))
5916 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
5918 ekko a speckled gecko
5920 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
5921 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
5922 following list of command-line arguments:
5924 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
5926 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
5927 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
5928 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
5929 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
5930 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5932 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
5934 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
5936 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
5937 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
5940 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
5941 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
5942 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
5943 SCSH) for circumventing them.
5945 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
5946 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
5947 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
5948 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
5950 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
5954 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
5958 If the user invokes this script as follows:
5960 ekko a speckled gecko
5962 Unix expands this into
5964 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
5966 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
5967 read from the second line of the script, producing:
5969 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
5971 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
5972 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
5974 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
5975 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
5976 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
5977 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
5978 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
5979 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
5980 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
5981 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
5982 it only terminates the argument list.)
5983 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
5984 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
5985 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
5986 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
5987 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
5988 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
5989 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
5990 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
5992 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
5994 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
5995 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
5996 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
5997 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
5998 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
6000 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
6001 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
6002 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
6004 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
6006 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
6007 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
6008 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
6009 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
6012 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
6013 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
6014 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
6016 * Changes to Scheme functions
6018 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
6019 and disabled by default.
6021 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
6022 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
6023 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
6024 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
6026 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
6028 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
6030 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
6031 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
6033 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
6034 (read-set! keywords #f)
6036 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
6037 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
6038 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
6041 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
6042 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
6043 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
6046 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
6047 support for Scheme functions.
6049 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6050 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
6051 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
6052 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
6055 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
6056 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
6057 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
6060 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
6061 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
6062 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
6065 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
6066 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
6067 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
6068 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
6069 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
6070 display the result as a prompt.
6071 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
6073 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
6074 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
6075 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
6078 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
6079 procedure of zero arguments.
6081 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
6082 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
6083 argument is bound in the current module.
6085 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
6086 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
6087 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
6088 public bindings into the current module.
6090 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
6091 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
6093 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
6094 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
6096 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
6097 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
6099 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
6100 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
6102 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
6103 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
6105 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
6106 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
6107 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
6108 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
6109 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
6111 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
6112 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
6113 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
6114 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
6116 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
6119 ** Changes to I/O functions
6121 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
6122 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
6123 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
6125 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
6126 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
6127 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
6129 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
6130 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
6132 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
6133 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
6134 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
6135 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
6137 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
6139 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
6140 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
6142 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
6143 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
6144 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
6145 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
6146 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
6149 'trim omit delimiter from result
6150 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
6151 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
6152 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
6154 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
6156 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
6157 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
6159 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
6160 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
6161 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
6162 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
6163 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
6165 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
6166 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
6167 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
6169 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
6170 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
6171 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
6172 above, and defaults to 'peek.
6174 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
6175 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6177 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
6178 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
6180 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
6182 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
6183 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
6184 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
6185 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
6186 a delimiting character.
6187 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
6189 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
6190 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
6191 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
6192 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
6193 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
6194 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
6196 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
6197 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
6199 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
6200 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
6201 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
6203 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
6204 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
6205 the array to read and write.
6207 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
6208 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
6211 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
6213 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
6216 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
6217 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
6218 Values for COMMAND are:
6220 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
6221 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
6222 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
6223 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
6224 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
6225 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
6226 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
6227 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
6229 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
6231 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
6232 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
6233 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
6234 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
6235 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
6236 corresponding return set will be the same.
6238 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
6241 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
6242 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
6243 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
6244 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
6245 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
6246 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
6247 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
6248 special file being created.
6250 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
6251 clashing with various SCSH forks.
6253 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
6254 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
6255 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
6256 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
6257 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
6258 and originating address.
6260 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
6261 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
6262 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
6264 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
6267 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
6268 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
6271 (status:exit-val STATUS)
6272 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
6273 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
6274 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
6275 this function returns #f.
6277 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
6278 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
6279 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
6282 (status:term-sig STATUS)
6283 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
6284 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
6287 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
6288 a valid STATUS value.
6290 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
6292 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
6293 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
6295 Component Accessor Setter
6296 ========================= ============ ============
6297 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
6298 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
6299 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
6300 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
6301 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
6302 year tm:year set-tm:year
6303 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
6304 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
6305 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
6306 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
6307 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
6309 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
6310 describing the host system:
6313 ============================================== ================
6314 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
6315 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
6316 release level of the operating system utsname:release
6317 version level of the operating system utsname:version
6318 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
6320 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
6321 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
6322 system's user database:
6325 ====================== =================
6326 user name passwd:name
6327 user password passwd:passwd
6330 real name passwd:gecos
6331 home directory passwd:dir
6332 shell program passwd:shell
6334 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
6335 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
6336 system's group database:
6339 ======================= ============
6340 group name group:name
6341 group password group:passwd
6343 group members group:mem
6345 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
6346 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
6350 ========================= ===============
6351 official name of host hostent:name
6352 alias list hostent:aliases
6353 host address type hostent:addrtype
6354 length of address hostent:length
6355 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
6357 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
6358 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
6362 ========================= ===============
6363 official name of net netent:name
6364 alias list netent:aliases
6365 net number type netent:addrtype
6366 net number netent:net
6368 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
6369 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
6373 ========================= ===============
6374 official protocol name protoent:name
6375 alias list protoent:aliases
6376 protocol number protoent:proto
6378 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
6379 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
6383 ========================= ===============
6384 official service name servent:name
6385 alias list servent:aliases
6386 port number servent:port
6387 protocol to use servent:proto
6389 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
6390 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
6393 ======================================== ===============
6394 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
6395 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
6396 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
6397 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
6399 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
6400 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
6401 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
6403 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
6404 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
6406 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
6407 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
6409 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
6410 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
6412 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
6414 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
6416 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
6417 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
6418 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
6420 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
6421 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
6422 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
6423 return the remaining characters as a string.
6425 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
6426 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
6427 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
6429 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
6431 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6433 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
6436 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
6439 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
6440 and returns the array
6442 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
6443 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
6444 the user to interpret the data both ways.
6446 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6448 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
6449 symbol's value from C code:
6451 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
6452 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
6453 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
6454 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
6456 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
6457 without assigning them a value.
6459 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
6460 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
6461 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
6463 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
6464 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
6465 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
6467 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
6468 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
6470 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
6471 doesn't actually care about that.
6473 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
6474 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
6475 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
6477 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
6478 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
6479 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
6480 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
6481 which we have just created and initialized.
6483 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
6484 should one occur. We call it like this:
6485 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
6487 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
6488 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
6489 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
6490 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
6491 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
6492 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
6495 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
6496 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
6497 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
6498 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
6499 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
6500 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
6501 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
6504 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
6505 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
6506 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
6507 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
6508 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
6511 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
6512 scm_internal_catch, except:
6514 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
6515 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
6516 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
6517 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
6520 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
6521 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
6522 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
6524 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
6525 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
6526 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
6527 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
6530 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
6531 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
6532 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
6534 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
6535 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
6536 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
6537 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
6538 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
6540 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
6541 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
6542 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
6544 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
6545 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
6546 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
6548 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
6549 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
6551 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
6552 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
6553 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
6556 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
6557 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
6558 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
6559 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
6560 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
6561 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
6562 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
6565 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
6566 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
6568 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
6569 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
6570 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
6571 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
6572 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
6575 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
6576 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
6578 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
6579 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
6582 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
6583 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
6585 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6588 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
6589 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
6590 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
6591 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
6592 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
6593 given the following arguments:
6595 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
6597 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
6599 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
6601 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6604 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
6605 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
6606 command-line arguments.
6608 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
6609 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
6610 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
6611 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
6612 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
6613 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
6616 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
6619 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
6620 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
6622 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
6623 rearranged slightly. They are now:
6625 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6626 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6627 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
6628 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
6630 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6631 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6633 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6634 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
6635 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
6636 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
6638 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
6639 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
6641 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
6642 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
6644 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
6646 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
6647 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
6648 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
6651 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
6652 returns a port instead of an FD object.
6654 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
6655 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
6660 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
6663 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
6665 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
6666 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
6667 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
6668 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
6670 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
6672 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
6674 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
6675 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
6676 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
6677 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
6678 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
6679 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
6680 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
6681 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
6682 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
6683 for more information.
6685 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
6686 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
6688 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
6689 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
6690 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
6691 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
6692 following two lines at the top of the file:
6694 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6697 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
6698 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
6699 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
6701 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
6703 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
6705 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
6708 (display (car args))
6709 (if (pair? (cdr args))
6711 (loop (cdr args)))))
6714 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
6715 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
6716 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
6717 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
6718 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
6719 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
6723 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
6726 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
6729 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
6731 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
6732 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
6733 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
6734 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
6735 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
6738 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
6739 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
6740 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
6741 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
6742 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
6745 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
6748 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
6749 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
6750 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
6753 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
6754 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
6755 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
6757 to see a backtrace, and
6758 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
6759 to see them by default.
6763 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
6765 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
6767 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
6768 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
6771 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
6772 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
6773 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
6774 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
6777 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
6778 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
6779 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
6780 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
6781 functions which inspired them.
6783 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
6784 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
6788 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
6790 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
6792 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
6793 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
6796 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
6797 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
6798 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
6800 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
6801 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
6802 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
6803 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
6804 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
6806 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
6808 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
6809 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
6810 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
6813 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
6816 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
6818 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
6819 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
6820 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
6821 above should serve their purposes.
6823 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
6824 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
6825 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
6826 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
6828 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
6831 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
6832 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
6833 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
6834 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
6836 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
6837 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
6838 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
6839 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
6841 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
6842 for the `read' function.
6845 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
6846 to that of `integer?'.
6848 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
6849 use the R4RS names for these functions.
6851 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
6852 it simply returns the object's property list.
6854 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
6855 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
6856 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
6857 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
6859 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
6861 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
6864 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
6866 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
6867 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
6869 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
6871 void (*main_func) (),
6874 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
6875 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
6876 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
6877 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
6878 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
6880 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
6881 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
6882 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
6883 know which arguments have been processed.
6885 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
6886 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
6887 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
6888 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
6889 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
6891 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
6892 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
6893 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
6894 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
6895 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
6896 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
6897 people from making that mistake.
6899 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
6900 convenient ways to override these when desired.
6902 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
6904 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
6908 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
6911 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
6912 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
6913 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
6914 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
6917 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
6918 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
6919 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
6920 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
6923 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
6924 have been added to the Guile library.
6926 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
6927 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
6928 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
6931 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
6932 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
6933 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
6935 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
6936 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
6937 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
6938 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
6939 argument from the list.
6942 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
6945 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
6946 null-terminated string, and returns it.
6948 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
6949 to a Scheme port object.
6951 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
6952 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
6957 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
6959 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
6960 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
6961 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
6962 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
6963 code as a special datatype.
6965 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
6966 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
6967 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
6968 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
6969 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
6972 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
6973 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
6974 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
6975 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
6976 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
6978 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
6981 Copyright information:
6983 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
6985 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
6986 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
6987 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
6988 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
6990 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
6991 of this document, or of portions of it,
6992 under the above conditions, provided also that they
6993 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
6998 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"