1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes. -*- text -*-
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
7 Changes since Guile 1.4:
9 * Changes to the distribution
11 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
13 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
14 the the-last-stack fluid for the debugger to inspect or in able to
17 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
19 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
20 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
21 to be named `and-let*', of course.
23 On systems that support it, there is also a compatability module named
24 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
26 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
31 (oop goops active-slot)
32 (oop goops composite-slot)
34 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
35 integrated into Guile.
39 (use-modules (oop goops))
41 access GOOPS bindings.
43 We're now ready to try some basic GOOPS functionality.
47 (define-method (+ (x <string>) (y <string>))
51 (+ "abc" "de") --> "abcde"
55 (define-class <2D-vector> ()
56 (x #:init-value 0 #:accessor x-component #:init-keyword #:x)
57 (y #:init-value 0 #:accessor y-component #:init-keyword #:y))
59 (define-method write ((obj <2D-vector>) port)
60 (display (format #f "<~S, ~S>" (x-component obj) (y-component obj))
63 (define v (make <2D-vector> #:x 3 #:y 4))
66 (define-method + ((x <2D-vector>) (y <2D-vector>))
68 #:x (+ (x-component x) (x-component y))
69 #:y (+ (y-component x) (y-component y))))
73 Asking for the type of an object
75 (class-of v) --> #<<class> <2D-vector> 40241ac0>
76 <2D-vector> --> #<<class> <2D-vector> 40241ac0>
77 (class-of 1) --> #<<class> <integer> 401b2a98>
78 <integer> --> #<<class> <integer> 401b2a98>
80 (is-a? v <2D-vector>) --> #t
82 See further in the GOOPS tutorial available in the guile-doc
83 distribution in info (goops.info) and texinfo formats.
85 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
87 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
88 in the default environment:
90 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
93 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
94 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
96 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
98 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
101 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
102 can be used for similar functionality.
104 ** New module (ice-9 match)
106 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher:
108 (use-modules (ice-9 match))
112 (('+ x y) `(add ,x ,y))
113 (('- x y) `(sub ,x ,y))) => (add 1 2)
115 See ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
116 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html for complete documentation.
118 This module requires SLIB to be installed and available from Guile.
120 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
122 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
124 Previously, you could for example write (cons 1 ()); now you need to
125 be more explicit and write (cons 1 '()).
127 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
131 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
132 (define m (make-safe-module))
133 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
134 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
135 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
137 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
139 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
141 The function `eval' will now save and restore the current module
142 around the evaluation of the specified expression. While this
143 expression is evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right
144 module, which is the module specified as the second argument to
147 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularily
148 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
149 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
150 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
151 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
152 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
153 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
154 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
155 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
156 one eval to the next.
158 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
159 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
160 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
161 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
162 subforms are at the top-level as well.
164 To prevent strange behaviour, the forms `define-module',
165 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
166 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
167 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
168 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
169 used in a lexical environment.
171 ** `port-for-each' makes an additional guarantee.
173 From the docstring: @var{proc} is applied exactly once to every port
174 that exists in the system at the time @var{port-for-each} is invoked.
175 Changes to the port table while @var{port-for-each} is running have no
176 effect as far as @var{port-for-each} is concerned.
178 This guarantee is important to make (ice-9 popen) work reliable.
180 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
182 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
183 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
184 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
186 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
188 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
189 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
190 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
192 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
193 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
194 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
195 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
197 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
199 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
200 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
202 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
203 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
204 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
205 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
206 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
209 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
210 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
211 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
212 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
213 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
214 successful and #f if it wasn't.
216 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
217 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
218 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
219 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
220 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
222 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
223 objects are usually permanent.
225 ** Escape procedures created by call-with-current-continuation now
226 accept any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
228 ** New function `make-object-property'
230 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
231 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
235 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
236 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
240 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
241 source properties eventually.
243 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
245 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
246 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
247 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
249 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
250 will be removed in the next release.
252 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
254 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
255 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
257 (scheme-report-environment 5)
259 (interaction-environment)
265 ** New define-module option: pure
267 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
272 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
275 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
277 Export names NAME1 ...
279 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
280 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
286 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
289 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
294 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
296 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
298 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
299 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
301 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
303 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
306 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
308 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
310 ** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
312 Read characters from an fport or file descriptor into a string
313 STR. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
314 large strings. It will:
316 * attempt to fill the entire string, unless the START and/or
317 END arguments are supplied. i.e., START defaults to 0 and
318 END defaults to `(string-length str)'
320 * use the current input port if PORT_OR_FDES is not supplied.
322 * read any characters that are currently available, without
323 waiting for the rest (short reads are possible).
325 * wait for as long as it needs to for the first character to
326 become available, unless the port is in non-blocking mode
328 * return `#f' if end-of-file is encountered before reading any
329 characters, otherwise return the number of characters read.
331 * return 0 if the port is in non-blocking mode and no characters
332 are immediately available.
334 * return 0 if the request is for 0 bytes, with no end-of-file
337 ** New function: port? X
339 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
340 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
342 ** New function: file-port?
344 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
346 ** New function: port-for-each proc
348 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The
349 return value is unspecified.
351 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
353 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
354 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
355 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
356 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
357 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
360 ** New function: close-fdes fd
362 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
363 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
364 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
365 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
368 ** New function: crypt password salt
370 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
373 ** New function: chroot path
375 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
377 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
379 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
382 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
384 Get or set the priority of the running process.
386 ** New function: getpass prompt
388 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
391 ** New function: flock file operation
393 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
395 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
397 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
400 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except. This was intended for closing
401 ports in a child process after a fork, but it has the undesirable side
402 effect of flushing buffers. port-for-each is more flexible.
404 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
405 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
406 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
408 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
410 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
412 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
414 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
416 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
418 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
419 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
421 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
422 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
424 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
425 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
427 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
429 * Changes to the gh_ interface
431 * Changes to the scm_ interface
433 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
435 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
436 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
437 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
439 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
441 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
443 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
444 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
445 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
448 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
450 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
452 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
453 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
455 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
457 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
458 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
459 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
460 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
462 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
463 scm_primitive_property_ref
464 scm_primitive_property_set_x
465 scm_primitive_property_del_x
467 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
468 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
470 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
472 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
473 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
474 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
475 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
477 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
479 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
480 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
481 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
482 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
483 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
484 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
485 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
487 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
488 scm_remember_upto_here
490 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
492 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
494 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
495 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
497 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
499 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
500 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
501 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
502 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
503 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
504 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
506 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
508 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
510 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
511 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
512 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
514 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
516 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
517 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
518 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
520 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
522 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
523 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
526 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
529 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
530 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
533 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
535 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
537 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
539 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
541 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
543 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
545 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
546 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
547 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
548 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
549 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
550 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
551 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
552 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
553 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
554 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
555 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
556 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA
558 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
559 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
560 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
561 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
562 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
563 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
564 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
565 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
566 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
567 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
568 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
569 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
570 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
571 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
572 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
573 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
574 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
575 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
576 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
577 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
578 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
579 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
580 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
581 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
582 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
584 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
586 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
588 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
589 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
591 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
593 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
595 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
597 Use scm_string_hash instead.
599 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
601 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
603 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
605 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
607 ** New function: scm_gentemp (SCM prefix, SCM obarray)
609 The builtin `gentemp' has now become a primitive.
611 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
614 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
615 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
617 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
619 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
621 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
623 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
626 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
628 * Changes to the distribution
630 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
632 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
633 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
634 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
635 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
636 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
637 obtain these programs.
638 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
639 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
641 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
642 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
643 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
644 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
645 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
647 However, this approach means that minor differences between
648 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
649 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
650 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
654 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
657 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
658 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
659 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
660 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
662 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
664 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
666 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
667 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
669 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
670 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
672 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
673 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
675 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
676 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
677 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
678 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
680 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
682 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
686 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
687 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
689 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
691 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
692 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
694 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
695 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
696 number of objects of that kind.
698 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
700 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
701 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
702 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
703 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
704 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
706 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
708 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
710 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
712 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
715 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
717 ** New command line option --debug
719 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
721 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
725 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
726 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
727 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
728 (help) gives this text
730 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
731 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
733 Examples: (help help)
735 (help "output-string")
737 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
739 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
741 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
742 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
745 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
746 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
747 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
750 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
751 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
752 use absolute filenames when possible.
754 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
755 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
756 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
759 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
761 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
762 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
763 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
764 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
766 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
768 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
770 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
771 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
772 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
774 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
775 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
776 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
778 (read-enable 'positions)
779 (debug-enable 'debug)
781 ** Backtraces in scripts
783 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
787 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
789 at the top of the script.
791 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
792 The second enables backtraces.)
794 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
796 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
797 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
798 substantially faster than before.
800 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
801 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
803 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
804 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
806 ** gc-thunk is deprecated
808 gc-thunk will be removed in next release of Guile. It has been
809 replaced by after-gc-hook.
811 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
813 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
814 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
815 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
817 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
818 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
819 when this hook is run in the future.
821 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
822 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
824 ** Improvements to garbage collector
826 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
827 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
830 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
831 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
832 more and more memory for certain programs.)
834 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
835 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
837 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
838 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
840 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
841 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
842 in order not to need further allocation.)
844 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
847 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
848 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
849 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
850 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
852 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
854 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
857 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
859 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
862 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
863 GC in percent of total heap size
866 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
867 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
869 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
871 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
872 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
874 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
876 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
877 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
879 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
881 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
882 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
886 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
887 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
889 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
891 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
893 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
895 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
897 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
899 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
900 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
902 (simple-format port message . args)
903 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
904 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
905 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
906 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
907 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
908 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
909 Does not add a trailing newline."
911 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
913 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
914 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
916 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
917 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
921 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
923 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
925 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
926 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
928 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
929 is returned as result.
931 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
933 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
935 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
937 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
938 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
941 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
943 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
945 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
946 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
948 * Changes to the gh_ interface
950 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
952 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
954 * Changes to the scm_ interface
956 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
958 Thanks to Greg Badros!
960 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
962 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
963 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
964 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
966 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
969 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
971 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
972 the readability of argument checking.
974 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
976 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
978 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
980 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
981 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
982 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
983 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
984 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
985 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
986 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
988 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
990 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
992 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
993 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
995 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
997 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
998 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
1001 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
1003 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
1004 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
1005 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
1007 Further, it is recommended not to rely on implementation details for guile's
1008 current implementation of bignums. It is planned to replace this
1009 implementation with gmp in the future.
1011 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
1012 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
1013 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
1015 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
1016 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
1017 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
1018 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
1019 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
1020 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
1021 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
1023 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
1024 scm_end_input (object);
1025 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
1026 ptob->flush (object);
1028 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
1029 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
1032 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
1034 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
1036 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
1037 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
1038 removed in a future version.
1040 ** The format of error message strings has changed
1042 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
1043 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
1044 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
1045 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
1047 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
1048 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
1050 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
1053 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
1055 in your configure.in.
1057 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
1062 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
1068 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
1070 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
1074 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
1075 (define make-message string-append)
1077 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
1079 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
1083 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
1088 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
1092 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
1094 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
1095 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
1097 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
1099 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
1100 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
1101 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
1102 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
1103 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
1104 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
1106 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
1107 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
1108 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
1110 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
1111 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
1112 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
1115 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
1116 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
1117 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
1118 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
1119 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
1121 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
1122 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
1123 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
1124 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
1125 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
1126 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
1127 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
1129 Destructors are not yet implemented.
1131 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
1132 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
1133 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
1135 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
1136 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
1137 KEY in the calling thread.
1139 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
1140 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
1141 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
1142 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
1143 associated with the key.
1145 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
1147 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
1148 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
1150 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
1152 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
1153 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
1154 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
1156 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
1158 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
1159 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
1161 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
1163 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
1165 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
1166 returned is undefined.
1168 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
1169 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
1170 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
1172 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
1173 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
1174 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
1176 ** New C level GC hooks
1178 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
1180 scm_before_gc_c_hook
1183 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
1184 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
1185 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
1187 scm_before_mark_c_hook
1188 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
1189 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
1191 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
1192 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
1195 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
1197 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
1198 allocation parameters
1200 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
1201 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
1202 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
1206 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
1207 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
1208 scm_default_max_segment_size
1210 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
1212 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
1213 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
1215 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
1217 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
1218 object and count on the object being protected until
1219 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
1221 The functions also have better time complexity.
1223 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
1224 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
1225 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
1226 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
1227 are no longer needed.
1229 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
1231 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
1232 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
1233 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
1234 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
1236 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
1238 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
1240 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
1242 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
1243 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
1244 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
1245 until this issue has been settled.
1247 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
1249 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
1251 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
1254 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
1256 * Changes to system call interfaces:
1258 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
1259 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
1260 descriptors were checked.
1262 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
1263 atomically written to a pipe.
1265 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
1266 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
1267 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
1268 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
1269 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
1270 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
1271 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
1274 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
1275 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
1276 is changed without calling tzset.
1278 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
1280 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
1281 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
1282 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
1284 (define write-network-long
1285 (lambda (value port)
1286 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
1287 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
1288 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
1290 (define read-network-long
1292 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
1293 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
1294 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
1296 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
1297 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
1299 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
1300 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
1301 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
1302 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
1304 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
1305 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
1306 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
1307 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
1311 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
1313 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1317 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
1318 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
1319 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
1325 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
1326 for a description of available commands.
1328 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
1329 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
1330 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
1332 (debug-enable 'backwards)
1334 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
1335 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
1337 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
1339 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
1341 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
1342 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
1343 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
1344 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
1345 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
1346 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
1349 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
1351 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
1352 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
1353 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
1354 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
1356 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
1357 the file and should not be affected by this change.
1359 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
1361 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1363 ** Readline support has changed again.
1365 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
1366 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
1367 to activate readline is now
1369 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
1372 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
1374 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
1375 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
1376 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
1379 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
1380 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
1381 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
1384 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
1385 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
1386 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
1387 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
1388 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
1389 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
1391 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
1392 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
1394 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
1396 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
1397 object it receives is the same string passed to
1398 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
1399 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
1400 string, not the suffix.
1402 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
1403 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
1404 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
1406 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
1408 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
1409 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
1410 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
1411 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
1414 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
1416 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
1418 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
1419 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
1420 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
1421 appear from left to right.
1423 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
1426 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
1428 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
1429 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
1431 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
1435 *** New function: hook? OBJ
1437 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
1439 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
1441 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
1442 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
1443 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
1445 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
1447 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
1449 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
1451 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
1454 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
1456 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
1457 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
1458 mentioning it here anyway.
1460 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
1462 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
1463 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
1464 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
1465 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
1468 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
1470 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
1472 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
1474 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
1475 otherwise return #f.
1477 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
1479 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
1480 returned by `opendir'.
1482 ** New function: using-readline?
1484 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
1486 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
1488 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
1489 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
1491 * Changes to the scm_ interface
1493 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
1495 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
1496 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
1497 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
1499 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
1501 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
1502 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
1504 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
1506 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
1507 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
1508 documentation slots are not yet used.
1510 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
1512 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
1513 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
1514 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
1519 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
1520 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
1521 (string-append x y))
1523 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
1524 can also be used for concatenating strings.
1526 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
1527 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
1528 be made in a clean way.]
1530 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
1532 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
1534 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
1536 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
1537 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
1539 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1541 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
1543 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
1545 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
1547 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
1548 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
1549 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
1550 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
1553 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1555 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
1557 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
1559 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
1561 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
1562 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
1564 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
1566 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
1568 Evaluates the body of a special form.
1570 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
1572 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
1573 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
1574 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
1575 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
1576 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
1577 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
1579 This should not make any difference for most users.
1581 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
1583 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
1584 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
1586 *** New functions for applying generic functions
1588 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
1589 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
1590 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
1591 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
1592 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
1594 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
1596 It is now replaced by:
1598 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
1600 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
1601 binds a variable named NAME to it.
1603 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
1605 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
1606 This might change when we get the new module system.
1608 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
1612 Changes since Guile 1.3:
1614 * Changes to mailing lists
1616 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
1618 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
1621 * Changes to the distribution
1623 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
1625 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
1626 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
1627 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
1628 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
1629 you explicitly specify it.
1631 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
1632 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
1633 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
1634 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
1635 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
1638 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
1639 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
1640 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
1641 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
1643 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
1644 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
1645 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
1648 You can activate the readline support by issuing
1650 (use-modules (readline-activator))
1653 from your ".guile" file, for example.
1655 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1657 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
1658 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
1659 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
1660 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
1662 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
1663 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
1666 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1668 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
1669 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
1670 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
1671 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
1672 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
1673 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
1674 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
1675 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
1687 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
1688 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
1689 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
1690 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
1691 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
1696 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
1697 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
1705 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
1710 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
1711 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
1714 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
1715 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
1716 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
1717 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
1719 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
1721 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
1723 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
1724 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
1726 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
1728 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
1730 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
1731 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
1733 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
1736 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
1738 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
1740 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
1742 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
1744 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
1746 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
1748 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
1749 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
1750 when the hook was created.
1752 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
1753 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
1754 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
1755 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
1756 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
1757 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
1758 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
1759 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
1760 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
1762 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
1763 the dlopen family of functions.
1765 ** New function `provided?'
1767 - Function: provided? FEATURE
1768 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
1769 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
1770 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
1772 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
1774 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
1775 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
1776 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
1777 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
1780 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
1781 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
1782 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
1783 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
1785 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
1786 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
1787 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
1790 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
1791 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
1792 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
1793 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
1794 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
1795 but with the flag set.
1797 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
1799 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
1800 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
1802 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
1803 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
1804 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
1805 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
1806 available Scheme format implementations.
1808 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
1809 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
1810 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
1811 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
1812 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
1813 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
1814 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
1815 output is to the current error port if available by the
1816 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
1819 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
1820 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
1821 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
1822 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
1823 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
1824 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
1825 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
1826 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
1828 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
1829 be executed at a time.
1832 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
1834 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
1835 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
1836 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
1838 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
1839 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
1840 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
1841 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
1842 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
1843 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
1844 general form of a directive is:
1846 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
1848 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
1850 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
1852 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
1853 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
1854 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
1857 Any (print as `display' does).
1861 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
1865 S-expression (print as `write' does).
1869 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
1875 print number sign always.
1878 print comma separated.
1880 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
1886 print number sign always.
1889 print comma separated.
1891 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
1897 print number sign always.
1900 print comma separated.
1902 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
1908 print number sign always.
1911 print comma separated.
1913 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
1918 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
1922 print a number as a Roman numeral.
1925 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
1928 print a number as an ordinal English number.
1931 print a number as a cardinal English number.
1936 prints `y' and `ies'.
1939 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
1942 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
1947 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
1951 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
1954 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
1955 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
1957 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
1960 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
1961 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
1963 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
1966 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
1968 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
1970 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
1973 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
1975 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
1977 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
1980 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
1983 The sign appears before the padding.
1991 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
1993 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
1998 print N page separators.
2008 newline is ignored, white space left.
2011 newline is left, white space ignored.
2016 relative tabulation.
2022 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
2024 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
2027 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
2029 converts by `string-capitalize'.
2032 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
2035 converts by `string-upcase'.
2038 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
2040 jumps N arguments forward.
2043 jumps 1 argument backward.
2046 jumps N arguments backward.
2049 jumps to the 0th argument.
2052 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
2054 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
2055 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
2057 take argument from N.
2060 true test conditional.
2063 if-else-then conditional.
2069 default clause follows.
2072 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
2074 at most N iterations.
2077 args from next arg (a list of lists).
2080 args from the rest of arguments.
2083 args from the rest args (lists).
2094 aborts if N <= M <= K
2096 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2099 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2102 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2108 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
2110 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
2112 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
2113 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
2114 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
2115 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
2116 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
2117 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
2121 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
2125 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
2131 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
2134 Print a `#\space' character
2136 print N `#\space' characters.
2139 Print a `#\tab' character
2141 print N `#\tab' characters.
2144 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
2145 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
2146 must be a positive decimal number.
2149 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2150 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2151 be processed by `read'.
2154 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2155 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2156 be processed by `read'.
2159 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
2162 prints format version.
2165 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
2166 and format it accordingly.
2168 *** Configuration Variables
2170 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
2171 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
2172 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
2173 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
2176 format:symbol-case-conv
2177 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
2178 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
2179 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
2180 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
2181 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
2183 format:iobj-case-conv
2184 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
2185 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
2188 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
2191 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
2197 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
2198 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
2199 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
2200 `format' padding style.
2203 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
2204 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
2205 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
2206 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
2210 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
2211 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
2212 directive parameters or modifiers)).
2215 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
2216 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
2217 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
2218 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
2219 parameters or modifiers)).
2222 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
2224 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
2226 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
2227 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
2229 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
2230 string-downcase! functions.
2232 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
2233 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
2235 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
2238 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
2241 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
2242 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
2244 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
2246 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
2247 the symbol had be read by `read'.
2249 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
2250 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
2251 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
2252 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
2253 would if STRING were input.
2255 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
2257 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
2258 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
2259 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
2260 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
2263 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
2265 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
2266 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
2269 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
2271 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
2272 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
2274 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
2275 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
2277 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
2278 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
2279 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
2280 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
2282 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
2283 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
2285 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
2286 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
2287 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
2289 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
2290 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
2292 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
2293 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
2294 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
2295 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
2296 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
2298 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
2299 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
2300 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
2301 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
2302 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
2303 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
2305 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
2306 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
2307 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
2310 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
2311 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
2312 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
2313 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
2314 the following grammar:
2315 ((apples (single-char #\a))
2316 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
2317 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
2318 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
2319 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
2320 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
2321 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
2322 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
2323 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
2324 last option in its combination)
2326 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
2327 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
2328 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
2329 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
2331 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
2332 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
2333 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
2335 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
2336 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
2337 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
2339 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
2340 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
2341 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
2342 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
2343 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
2344 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
2345 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
2346 ordinary argument strings.
2348 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
2349 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
2350 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
2351 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
2353 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
2354 as a list, associated with the empty list.
2356 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
2357 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
2358 - a required option is omitted
2359 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
2360 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
2361 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
2362 - an option predicate fails
2367 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
2370 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
2371 (verbose (required? #f)
2374 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
2375 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
2376 (predicate ,string?))))
2378 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
2379 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
2381 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
2382 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
2383 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
2384 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
2387 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
2389 It will be removed in a few releases.
2391 ** New syntax: lambda*
2392 ** New syntax: define*
2393 ** New syntax: define*-public
2394 ** New syntax: defmacro*
2395 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
2396 Guile now supports optional arguments.
2398 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
2399 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
2400 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
2401 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
2402 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
2404 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
2405 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
2406 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
2408 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
2410 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
2411 and examples for `lambda*':
2414 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
2416 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
2417 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
2418 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
2419 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
2420 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
2421 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
2422 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
2423 can be checked with the bound? macro.
2425 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
2427 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
2428 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
2429 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
2430 are given as keywords are bound to values.
2432 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
2433 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
2434 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
2435 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
2436 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
2437 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
2438 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
2439 and until the procedure is called.
2441 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
2443 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
2444 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
2445 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
2446 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
2447 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
2448 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
2449 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
2450 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
2451 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
2452 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
2454 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
2455 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
2456 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
2457 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
2460 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
2462 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
2463 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
2464 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
2465 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
2467 ** New syntax: and-let*
2468 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
2470 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
2471 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
2472 (<variable> <expression>)
2475 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
2476 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
2477 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
2480 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
2481 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
2482 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
2483 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
2484 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
2485 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
2486 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
2488 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
2489 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
2490 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
2491 shadow earlier bindings.
2493 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
2495 ** New sorting functions
2497 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
2498 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
2499 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
2500 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
2502 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
2503 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
2506 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
2507 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
2508 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
2510 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
2511 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
2512 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
2513 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
2515 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
2516 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
2517 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
2518 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
2519 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
2522 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
2523 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
2524 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
2525 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
2526 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
2527 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
2529 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
2530 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
2531 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
2533 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
2534 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
2535 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
2538 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
2539 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
2540 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
2542 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
2543 Added for compatibility with scsh.
2545 ** New built-in random number support
2547 *** New function: random N [STATE]
2548 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
2549 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
2550 returned have a uniform distribution.
2552 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
2553 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
2554 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
2555 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
2556 effect of the `random' operation.
2558 *** New variable: *random-state*
2559 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
2560 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
2561 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
2562 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
2563 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
2566 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
2567 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
2568 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
2569 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
2570 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
2572 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
2573 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
2574 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
2575 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
2576 initialized using SEED.
2578 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
2579 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
2580 range between 0 and 1.
2582 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
2583 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
2584 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
2585 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
2586 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
2587 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
2588 or a uniform vector of doubles.
2590 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
2591 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
2592 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
2593 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
2594 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
2595 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
2597 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
2598 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
2599 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
2600 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
2602 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
2603 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
2604 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
2605 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
2607 *** New function: random:exp STATE
2608 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
2609 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
2611 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
2613 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
2616 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
2617 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
2620 ** New function: make-guardian
2621 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
2622 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
2623 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
2624 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
2625 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
2627 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
2628 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
2629 one object if at all.
2631 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
2632 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
2633 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
2635 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
2636 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
2637 read again in last-in first-out order.
2639 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
2640 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
2642 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
2644 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
2645 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
2646 file position is used.
2648 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
2649 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
2650 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
2652 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
2653 redefined using seek.
2655 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
2656 size is not supplied.
2658 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
2659 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
2661 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
2662 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
2664 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
2666 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
2667 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
2668 and returns the contents as a single string.
2670 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
2671 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
2672 lists in serial order.
2674 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
2675 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
2676 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
2678 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
2679 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
2680 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
2681 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
2683 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
2684 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
2685 and #f if an error occured.
2687 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
2689 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
2690 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
2691 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
2692 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
2694 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
2696 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
2699 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
2701 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
2704 * Changes to the gh_ interface
2708 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
2709 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
2711 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
2712 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
2716 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2718 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
2720 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
2721 binds a variable named NAME to it.
2723 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
2725 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
2726 might change when we get the new module system.
2728 ** The smob interface
2730 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
2731 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
2733 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
2735 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
2739 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
2740 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
2741 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
2742 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
2743 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
2744 will be freed by the default free function.
2746 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
2747 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
2748 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2749 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2751 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
2752 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
2753 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2754 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2756 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
2758 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
2759 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
2763 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
2764 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2765 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2767 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
2768 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
2769 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
2770 `scm_make_smob_type'.
2772 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
2773 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
2774 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
2776 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
2777 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
2778 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
2779 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
2781 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
2782 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
2783 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
2785 *** scm_newptob has been removed
2789 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
2791 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
2792 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
2793 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
2795 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
2796 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
2797 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
2799 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
2800 a string port's buffer.
2802 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
2803 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
2804 function pointers which together define the current random number
2805 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
2806 number library functions.
2808 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
2811 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
2812 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
2815 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
2816 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
2818 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
2819 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
2821 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
2822 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
2825 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
2826 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
2827 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
2828 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
2830 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
2831 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
2832 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
2833 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
2834 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
2835 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
2836 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
2838 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
2839 by libguile and the application.
2841 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
2842 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
2843 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
2844 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
2846 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
2847 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
2849 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
2850 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
2851 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
2853 ** Random number library functions
2854 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
2855 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
2856 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
2858 The default random state is stored in:
2860 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
2861 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
2862 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
2867 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
2869 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
2870 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
2871 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
2872 isn't a random state.
2874 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
2875 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
2877 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
2878 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
2879 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
2880 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
2882 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
2883 Return 32 random bits.
2885 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
2886 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
2888 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
2889 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
2891 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
2892 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
2894 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
2895 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
2897 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
2898 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
2899 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
2903 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
2905 * Changes to the distribution
2907 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
2908 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
2909 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
2912 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
2913 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
2914 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
2916 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
2917 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
2918 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
2919 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
2922 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
2923 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
2924 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
2926 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2928 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
2930 *** Function: batch-mode?
2932 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
2935 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
2937 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
2938 case has not been implemented.
2940 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
2941 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
2942 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
2945 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
2946 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
2948 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
2950 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
2952 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
2954 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
2955 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
2958 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
2959 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
2960 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
2961 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
2964 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
2966 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
2967 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
2968 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
2969 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
2970 find those libraries.
2972 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
2973 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
2976 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
2978 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
2979 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
2980 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
2981 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
2983 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
2984 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
2985 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
2989 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
2991 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
2992 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
2993 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
2996 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
2997 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
2998 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
2999 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
3001 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
3002 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
3005 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
3006 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
3007 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
3008 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
3009 compiler where to find the libraries.
3011 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
3012 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
3013 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
3015 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
3016 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
3017 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
3018 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
3019 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
3023 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3025 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
3026 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
3027 internationalization support.
3029 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
3030 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
3031 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
3032 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
3033 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
3035 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
3036 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
3037 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
3038 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
3039 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
3041 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
3042 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
3043 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
3044 any GNU mirror site.
3046 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
3048 ** New function: add-history STRING
3049 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
3050 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
3051 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
3053 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
3055 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
3056 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
3057 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
3060 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
3061 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
3062 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
3064 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
3066 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
3069 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
3070 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
3073 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
3074 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
3075 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
3076 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
3077 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
3078 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
3080 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
3081 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
3082 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
3083 of the form mentioned above.
3085 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
3086 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
3087 returned in the special `rest' list.
3089 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
3090 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
3092 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
3094 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
3096 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
3098 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
3099 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
3100 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
3101 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
3102 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
3103 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
3104 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
3105 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
3108 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
3110 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
3112 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
3113 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
3116 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
3117 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
3118 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
3122 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
3123 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
3124 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
3125 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
3126 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
3127 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
3128 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
3129 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
3132 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
3134 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
3135 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
3136 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
3138 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
3140 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
3141 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
3143 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
3144 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
3145 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
3147 Why do we have this function?
3148 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
3149 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
3150 primitive, and display it differently, and
3151 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
3152 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
3155 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
3156 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
3159 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
3160 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
3161 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
3162 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
3164 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
3165 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
3168 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
3169 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
3171 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
3173 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
3174 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
3175 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
3176 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
3177 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
3178 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
3179 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
3182 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
3184 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
3185 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
3187 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
3188 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
3189 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
3190 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
3191 properly continue the print chain.
3193 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
3194 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
3195 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
3196 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
3197 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
3198 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
3199 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
3200 print-state, it is simply ignored.
3202 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
3203 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
3204 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
3205 safest to not check for these pairs.
3207 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
3208 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
3209 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
3210 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
3212 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
3214 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
3215 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
3217 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
3219 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
3221 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
3222 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
3223 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
3225 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
3226 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
3227 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
3229 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
3230 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
3231 the following functions and macros:
3233 Function: make-fluid
3235 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
3236 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
3237 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
3238 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
3239 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
3241 Function: fluid? OBJ
3243 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
3245 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
3246 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
3248 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
3249 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
3251 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
3253 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
3254 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
3255 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
3256 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
3257 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
3258 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
3259 modified by `with-fluids*'.
3261 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
3263 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
3264 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
3265 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
3266 should evaluate to a fluid.
3268 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
3270 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
3271 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
3272 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
3273 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
3274 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
3276 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
3279 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
3281 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
3283 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
3285 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
3288 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
3289 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
3290 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
3291 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
3292 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
3295 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
3296 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
3297 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
3299 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
3300 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
3301 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
3303 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
3304 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
3305 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
3306 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
3308 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
3309 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
3310 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
3311 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
3313 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
3314 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
3315 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
3316 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
3318 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
3319 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
3320 their revealed counts set to zero.
3322 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3323 Returns an integer file descriptor.
3325 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3326 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
3328 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3329 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
3331 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3332 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
3333 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
3335 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
3336 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
3337 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
3339 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
3340 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
3341 default environment inherited by child processes.
3343 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
3344 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
3345 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
3347 The return value is unspecified.
3349 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
3350 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
3351 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
3352 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
3353 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
3355 The return value is unspecified.
3357 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
3358 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
3366 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
3367 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
3370 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
3373 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
3374 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
3375 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
3377 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
3378 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
3379 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
3380 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
3383 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
3384 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
3386 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
3387 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
3388 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
3389 the `environ' procedure.
3391 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
3392 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
3395 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
3396 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
3398 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
3399 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
3400 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
3401 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
3403 *** procedure: times
3404 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
3405 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
3406 return a selected component:
3409 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
3413 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
3416 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
3420 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
3421 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
3425 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
3426 terminated child processes.
3428 ** Removed: list-length
3429 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
3430 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
3432 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
3434 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
3436 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
3438 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
3439 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
3440 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
3441 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
3443 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
3444 extra complexity it introduces.
3446 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
3447 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
3449 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
3450 variable to any non-empty value.
3452 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
3453 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
3455 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3457 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
3458 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
3460 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
3462 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
3463 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
3465 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
3467 ** vector handling routines
3469 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
3470 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
3471 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
3472 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
3473 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
3475 ** pair and list routines
3477 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
3480 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
3482 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
3485 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3487 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
3489 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
3490 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
3491 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
3492 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
3493 site-specific initialization code.
3495 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
3496 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
3497 initialization processes.
3499 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
3500 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
3501 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
3502 initialized properly.
3504 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
3505 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
3506 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
3508 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
3509 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
3510 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
3511 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
3512 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
3514 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
3516 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
3517 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
3518 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
3519 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
3520 objects the smob refers to get marked.
3522 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
3523 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
3524 which look like this:
3527 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
3529 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
3530 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
3533 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
3534 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
3537 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
3539 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
3540 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
3541 you will need to change your functions slightly.
3543 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
3544 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
3545 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
3546 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
3547 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
3549 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
3550 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
3552 int (*free) (SCM port);
3553 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
3554 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
3555 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
3559 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
3560 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
3561 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
3563 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
3566 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
3567 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
3568 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
3570 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
3571 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
3572 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
3575 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
3579 struct timeval *timeout);
3581 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
3582 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
3583 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
3584 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
3585 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
3586 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
3588 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
3589 scm_catch_body_t body,
3591 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
3594 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
3595 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
3596 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
3597 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
3598 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
3599 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
3601 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
3603 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
3606 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
3607 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
3608 spawning threads from application C code.
3610 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
3611 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
3612 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
3613 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
3614 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
3615 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
3617 ** Removed functions:
3619 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
3620 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
3622 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
3624 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
3625 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
3627 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
3629 ** mbstrings are now removed
3631 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
3632 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
3634 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
3636 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
3637 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
3638 their new names and arguments:
3640 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
3641 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
3642 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
3643 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
3646 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
3648 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
3650 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
3653 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
3655 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
3656 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
3657 pass a #f arg to catch.
3659 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
3661 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
3662 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
3665 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
3666 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
3667 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
3668 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
3669 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
3670 reclaim its storage.
3672 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
3673 worrying that some other function you call will call
3674 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
3675 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
3676 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
3677 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
3680 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
3682 * Changes to the distribution
3684 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
3685 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
3688 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
3689 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
3691 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
3692 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
3694 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
3696 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
3697 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
3698 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
3700 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
3702 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
3703 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
3704 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
3705 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
3706 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
3707 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
3709 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
3710 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
3711 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
3714 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
3715 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
3716 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
3717 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
3719 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
3720 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
3721 libraries to your link command:
3723 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
3724 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
3725 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
3726 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
3728 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
3729 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
3730 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
3732 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3734 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
3735 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
3738 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
3740 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
3741 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
3742 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
3743 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
3744 searched is system dependent.
3746 (dynamic-object? VAL)
3748 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
3750 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
3752 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
3753 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
3755 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
3757 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
3758 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
3759 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
3760 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
3761 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
3764 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
3766 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
3767 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
3768 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
3769 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
3770 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
3772 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
3774 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
3775 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
3777 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
3779 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
3780 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
3781 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
3784 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
3786 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
3787 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
3788 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
3789 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
3791 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
3792 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
3794 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
3796 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
3797 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
3799 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
3801 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
3802 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
3810 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
3812 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
3813 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
3814 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
3815 a more informative way.
3817 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
3818 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
3819 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
3820 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
3821 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
3822 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
3824 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
3825 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
3828 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
3829 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
3830 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
3833 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
3834 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
3835 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
3836 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
3837 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
3838 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
3840 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
3841 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
3842 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
3843 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
3846 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
3847 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
3848 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
3849 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
3850 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
3851 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
3853 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
3854 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
3855 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
3856 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
3857 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
3859 *** regexp functions
3861 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
3862 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
3863 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
3865 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
3866 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
3867 with SCSH regular expressions.
3869 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
3870 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
3871 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
3872 position of STR at which to begin matching.
3874 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
3875 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
3876 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
3877 `string-match' returns `#f'.
3879 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
3880 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
3881 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
3882 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
3883 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
3884 match strings against the compiled regexp.
3886 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
3887 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
3888 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
3889 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
3890 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
3892 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
3894 **** Constant: regexp/extended
3895 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
3896 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
3897 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
3899 **** Constant: regexp/icase
3900 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
3901 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
3903 **** Constant: regexp/newline
3904 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
3906 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
3909 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
3910 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
3911 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
3913 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
3914 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
3915 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
3917 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
3918 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
3919 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
3920 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
3921 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
3924 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
3926 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
3927 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
3928 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
3929 used when different portions of a string are passed to
3930 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
3931 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
3933 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
3934 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
3935 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
3937 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
3938 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
3941 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
3942 and replace them with the contents of another string.
3944 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
3945 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
3946 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
3947 may be one of the following arguments:
3949 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
3951 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
3953 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
3954 the regexp match is written.
3956 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
3957 following the regexp match is written.
3959 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
3960 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
3963 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
3964 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
3965 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
3966 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
3967 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
3968 which should be matched against this regular expression.
3970 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
3973 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
3974 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
3975 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
3976 written out to PORT.
3978 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
3979 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
3980 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
3981 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
3982 will return after processing a single match.
3984 *** Match Structures
3986 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
3987 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
3988 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
3989 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
3990 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
3991 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
3994 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
3995 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
3996 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
3997 information about the original target string that was matched against a
3998 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
4000 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
4001 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
4002 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
4004 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
4005 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
4006 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
4007 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
4008 number N did not match, return `#f'.
4010 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
4011 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
4013 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
4014 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
4016 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
4017 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
4019 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
4020 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
4022 **** Function: match:count MATCH
4023 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
4024 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
4025 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
4027 **** Function: match:string MATCH
4028 Return the original TARGET string.
4030 *** Backslash Escapes
4032 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
4033 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
4034 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
4035 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
4036 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
4037 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
4039 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
4040 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
4041 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
4042 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
4043 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
4044 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
4045 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
4046 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
4048 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
4049 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
4050 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
4051 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
4052 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
4053 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
4054 each match a single backslash in the target string.
4056 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
4057 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
4058 return the resulting string.
4060 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
4061 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
4062 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
4063 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
4064 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
4065 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
4066 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
4067 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
4068 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
4069 translated to the single character `*'.
4071 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
4072 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
4073 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
4074 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
4075 consecutive backslashes:
4077 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
4079 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
4080 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
4081 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
4083 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
4084 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
4085 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
4086 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
4087 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
4088 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
4090 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
4092 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
4093 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
4094 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
4095 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
4096 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
4097 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
4098 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
4099 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
4100 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
4101 cumbersome escape syntax.
4103 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4105 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4107 * Changes to system call interfaces:
4109 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
4112 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
4114 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
4116 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
4119 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
4120 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
4121 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
4122 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
4123 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
4125 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
4126 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
4127 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
4128 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
4129 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
4130 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
4131 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
4134 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
4135 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
4136 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
4139 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
4140 `force-output' on every port open for output.
4142 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
4143 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
4144 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
4145 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
4146 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
4147 installed, you can say:
4149 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
4152 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4154 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
4155 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
4156 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
4157 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
4158 new dynamic roots and threads.
4161 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
4163 * Changes to the distribution.
4165 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
4167 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
4168 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
4169 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
4170 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
4171 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
4172 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
4173 programming language. These are packaged together because the
4174 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
4176 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
4179 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
4180 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
4185 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4187 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
4188 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
4190 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
4191 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
4192 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
4193 the (command-line) function.
4194 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
4195 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
4196 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
4198 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
4199 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
4200 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
4201 command line arguments
4202 -ds do -s script at this point
4203 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
4204 -h, --help display this help and exit
4205 -v, --version display version information and exit
4206 \ read arguments from following script lines
4208 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
4209 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
4211 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
4214 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
4218 (main (command-line))
4220 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
4222 ekko a speckled gecko
4224 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
4225 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
4226 following list of command-line arguments:
4228 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
4230 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
4231 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
4232 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
4233 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
4234 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
4236 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
4238 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
4240 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
4241 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
4244 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
4245 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
4246 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
4247 SCSH) for circumventing them.
4249 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
4250 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
4251 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
4252 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
4254 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
4258 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
4262 If the user invokes this script as follows:
4264 ekko a speckled gecko
4266 Unix expands this into
4268 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
4270 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
4271 read from the second line of the script, producing:
4273 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
4275 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
4276 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
4278 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
4279 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
4280 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
4281 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
4282 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
4283 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
4284 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
4285 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
4286 it only terminates the argument list.)
4287 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
4288 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
4289 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
4290 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
4291 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
4292 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
4293 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
4294 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
4296 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4298 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
4299 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
4300 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
4301 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
4302 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
4304 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
4305 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
4306 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
4308 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
4310 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
4311 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
4312 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
4313 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
4316 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
4317 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
4318 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
4320 * Changes to Scheme functions
4322 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
4323 and disabled by default.
4325 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
4326 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
4327 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
4328 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
4330 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
4332 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
4334 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
4335 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
4337 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
4338 (read-set! keywords #f)
4340 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
4341 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
4342 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
4345 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
4346 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
4347 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
4350 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
4351 support for Scheme functions.
4353 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
4354 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
4355 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
4356 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
4359 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
4360 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
4361 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
4364 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
4365 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
4366 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
4369 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
4370 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
4371 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
4372 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
4373 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
4374 display the result as a prompt.
4375 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
4377 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
4378 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
4379 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
4382 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
4383 procedure of zero arguments.
4385 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
4386 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
4387 argument is bound in the current module.
4389 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
4390 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
4391 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
4392 public bindings into the current module.
4394 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
4395 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
4397 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
4398 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
4400 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
4401 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
4403 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
4404 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
4406 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
4407 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
4409 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
4410 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
4411 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
4412 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
4413 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
4415 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
4416 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
4417 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
4418 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
4420 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
4423 ** Changes to I/O functions
4425 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
4426 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
4427 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
4429 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
4430 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
4431 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
4433 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
4434 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
4436 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
4437 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
4438 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
4439 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
4441 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
4443 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
4444 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
4446 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
4447 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
4448 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
4449 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
4450 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
4453 'trim omit delimiter from result
4454 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
4455 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
4456 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
4458 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
4460 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
4461 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
4463 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
4464 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
4465 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
4466 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
4467 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
4469 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
4470 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
4471 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
4473 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
4474 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
4475 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
4476 above, and defaults to 'peek.
4478 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
4479 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
4481 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
4482 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
4484 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
4486 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
4487 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
4488 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
4489 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
4490 a delimiting character.
4491 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
4493 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
4494 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
4495 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
4496 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
4497 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
4498 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
4500 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
4501 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
4503 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
4504 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
4505 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
4507 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
4508 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
4509 the array to read and write.
4511 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
4512 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
4515 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
4517 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
4520 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
4521 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
4522 Values for COMMAND are:
4524 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
4525 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
4526 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
4527 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
4528 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
4529 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
4530 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
4531 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
4533 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
4535 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
4536 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
4537 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
4538 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
4539 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
4540 corresponding return set will be the same.
4542 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
4545 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
4546 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
4547 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
4548 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
4549 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
4550 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
4551 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
4552 special file being created.
4554 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
4555 clashing with various SCSH forks.
4557 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
4558 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
4559 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
4560 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
4561 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
4562 and originating address.
4564 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
4565 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
4566 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
4568 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
4571 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
4572 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
4575 (status:exit-val STATUS)
4576 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
4577 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
4578 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
4579 this function returns #f.
4581 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
4582 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
4583 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
4586 (status:term-sig STATUS)
4587 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
4588 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
4591 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
4592 a valid STATUS value.
4594 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
4596 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
4597 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
4599 Component Accessor Setter
4600 ========================= ============ ============
4601 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
4602 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
4603 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
4604 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
4605 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
4606 year tm:year set-tm:year
4607 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
4608 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
4609 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
4610 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
4611 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
4613 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
4614 describing the host system:
4617 ============================================== ================
4618 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
4619 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
4620 release level of the operating system utsname:release
4621 version level of the operating system utsname:version
4622 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
4624 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
4625 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
4626 system's user database:
4629 ====================== =================
4630 user name passwd:name
4631 user password passwd:passwd
4634 real name passwd:gecos
4635 home directory passwd:dir
4636 shell program passwd:shell
4638 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
4639 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
4640 system's group database:
4643 ======================= ============
4644 group name group:name
4645 group password group:passwd
4647 group members group:mem
4649 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
4650 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
4654 ========================= ===============
4655 official name of host hostent:name
4656 alias list hostent:aliases
4657 host address type hostent:addrtype
4658 length of address hostent:length
4659 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
4661 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
4662 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
4666 ========================= ===============
4667 official name of net netent:name
4668 alias list netent:aliases
4669 net number type netent:addrtype
4670 net number netent:net
4672 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
4673 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
4677 ========================= ===============
4678 official protocol name protoent:name
4679 alias list protoent:aliases
4680 protocol number protoent:proto
4682 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
4683 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
4687 ========================= ===============
4688 official service name servent:name
4689 alias list servent:aliases
4690 port number servent:port
4691 protocol to use servent:proto
4693 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
4694 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
4697 ======================================== ===============
4698 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
4699 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
4700 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
4701 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
4703 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
4704 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
4705 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
4707 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
4708 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
4710 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
4711 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
4713 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
4714 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
4716 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
4718 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
4720 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
4721 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
4722 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
4724 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
4725 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
4726 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
4727 return the remaining characters as a string.
4729 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
4730 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
4731 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
4733 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
4735 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4737 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
4740 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
4743 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
4744 and returns the array
4746 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
4747 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
4748 the user to interpret the data both ways.
4750 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4752 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
4753 symbol's value from C code:
4755 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
4756 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
4757 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
4758 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
4760 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
4761 without assigning them a value.
4763 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
4764 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
4765 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
4767 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
4768 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
4769 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
4771 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
4772 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
4774 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
4775 doesn't actually care about that.
4777 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
4778 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
4779 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
4781 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
4782 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
4783 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
4784 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
4785 which we have just created and initialized.
4787 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
4788 should one occur. We call it like this:
4789 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
4791 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
4792 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
4793 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
4794 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
4795 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
4796 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
4799 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
4800 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
4801 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
4802 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
4803 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
4804 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
4805 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
4808 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
4809 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
4810 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
4811 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
4812 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
4815 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
4816 scm_internal_catch, except:
4818 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
4819 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
4820 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
4821 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
4824 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
4825 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
4826 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
4828 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
4829 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
4830 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
4831 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
4834 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
4835 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
4836 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
4838 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
4839 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
4840 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
4841 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
4842 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
4844 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
4845 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
4846 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
4848 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
4849 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
4850 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
4852 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
4853 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
4855 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
4856 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
4857 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
4860 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
4861 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
4862 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
4863 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
4864 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
4865 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
4866 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
4869 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
4870 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
4872 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
4873 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
4874 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
4875 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
4876 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
4879 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
4880 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
4882 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
4883 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
4886 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
4887 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
4889 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
4892 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
4893 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
4894 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
4895 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
4896 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
4897 given the following arguments:
4899 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
4901 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
4903 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
4905 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
4908 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
4909 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
4910 command-line arguments.
4912 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
4913 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
4914 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
4915 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
4916 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
4917 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
4920 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
4923 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
4924 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
4926 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
4927 rearranged slightly. They are now:
4929 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
4930 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
4931 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
4932 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
4934 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
4935 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
4937 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
4938 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
4939 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
4940 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
4942 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
4943 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
4945 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
4946 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
4948 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
4950 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
4951 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
4952 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
4955 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
4956 returns a port instead of an FD object.
4958 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
4959 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
4964 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
4967 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
4969 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
4970 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
4971 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
4972 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
4974 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
4976 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
4978 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
4979 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
4980 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
4981 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
4982 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
4983 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
4984 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
4985 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
4986 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
4987 for more information.
4989 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
4990 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
4992 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
4993 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
4994 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
4995 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
4996 following two lines at the top of the file:
4998 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5001 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
5002 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
5003 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
5005 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
5007 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5009 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
5012 (display (car args))
5013 (if (pair? (cdr args))
5015 (loop (cdr args)))))
5018 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
5019 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
5020 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
5021 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
5022 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
5023 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
5027 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
5030 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
5033 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
5035 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
5036 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
5037 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
5038 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
5039 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
5042 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
5043 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
5044 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
5045 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
5046 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
5049 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
5052 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
5053 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
5054 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
5057 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
5058 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
5059 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
5061 to see a backtrace, and
5062 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
5063 to see them by default.
5067 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
5069 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
5071 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
5072 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
5075 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
5076 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
5077 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
5078 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
5081 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
5082 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
5083 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
5084 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
5085 functions which inspired them.
5087 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
5088 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
5092 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
5094 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
5096 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
5097 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
5100 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
5101 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
5102 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
5104 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
5105 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
5106 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
5107 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
5108 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
5110 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
5112 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
5113 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
5114 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
5117 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
5120 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
5122 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
5123 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
5124 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
5125 above should serve their purposes.
5127 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
5128 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
5129 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
5130 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
5132 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
5135 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
5136 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
5137 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
5138 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
5140 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
5141 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
5142 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
5143 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
5145 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
5146 for the `read' function.
5149 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
5150 to that of `integer?'.
5152 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
5153 use the R4RS names for these functions.
5155 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
5156 it simply returns the object's property list.
5158 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
5159 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
5160 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
5161 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
5163 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
5165 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
5168 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
5170 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
5171 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
5173 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
5175 void (*main_func) (),
5178 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
5179 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
5180 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
5181 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
5182 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
5184 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
5185 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
5186 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
5187 know which arguments have been processed.
5189 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
5190 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
5191 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
5192 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
5193 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
5195 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
5196 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
5197 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
5198 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
5199 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
5200 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
5201 people from making that mistake.
5203 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
5204 convenient ways to override these when desired.
5206 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
5208 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
5212 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
5215 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
5216 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
5217 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
5218 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
5221 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
5222 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
5223 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
5224 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
5227 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
5228 have been added to the Guile library.
5230 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
5231 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
5232 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
5235 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
5236 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
5237 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
5239 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
5240 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
5241 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
5242 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
5243 argument from the list.
5246 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
5249 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
5250 null-terminated string, and returns it.
5252 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
5253 to a Scheme port object.
5255 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
5256 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
5261 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
5263 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
5264 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
5265 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
5266 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
5267 code as a special datatype.
5269 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
5270 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
5271 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
5272 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
5273 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
5276 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
5277 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
5278 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
5279 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
5280 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
5282 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
5285 Copyright information:
5287 Copyright (C) 1996,1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5289 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
5290 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
5291 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
5292 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
5294 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
5295 of this document, or of portions of it,
5296 under the above conditions, provided also that they
5297 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
5302 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"