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 the stable branch:
9 * Changes to the standalone interpreter
11 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
13 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
14 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
16 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
18 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
19 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
21 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
23 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
25 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
26 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
27 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
29 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
31 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
32 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
34 ** Removed: substring-move-left!, substring-move-right!
36 Use `substring-move!' instead.
38 * Changes to the C interface
40 ** New function: scm_str2string
42 This function creates a scheme string from a 0-terminated C string. The input
45 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
47 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
48 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
49 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
50 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
51 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
53 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
54 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
55 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
57 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, QT_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
58 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
60 Changes since Guile 1.4:
62 * Changes to the distribution
64 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
66 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
68 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
69 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
70 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
71 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
72 indicate major changes in Guile.
74 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
75 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
76 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
77 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
79 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
80 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
81 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
82 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
85 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
87 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
89 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
90 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
91 See INSTALL and README for more information.
93 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
95 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
96 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
97 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
100 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
102 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
105 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
107 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
108 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
110 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
112 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
113 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
116 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
118 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
121 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
124 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
126 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
128 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
129 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
130 open-output-string, get-output-string.
132 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
134 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
136 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
139 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
141 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
143 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
145 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
146 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
147 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
149 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
151 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
153 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
154 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
163 See README there for more info.
165 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
166 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
169 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
171 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
173 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
175 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
176 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
177 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
179 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
181 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
182 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
183 to be named `and-let*', of course.
185 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
186 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
188 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
193 (oop goops active-slot)
194 (oop goops composite-slot)
196 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
197 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
198 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
200 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
202 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
203 in the default environment:
205 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
206 %read-line write-line
208 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
209 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
211 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
213 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
216 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
217 can be used for similar functionality.
219 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
221 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
222 it defines two procedures:
224 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
226 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
227 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
228 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
231 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
233 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
234 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
235 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
238 ** New module (ice-9 match)
240 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
241 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
243 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
245 for complete documentation.
247 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
249 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
250 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
251 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
252 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
254 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
255 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
259 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
260 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
261 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
264 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
267 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
268 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
270 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
271 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
274 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
277 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
279 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
281 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
283 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
285 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
286 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
287 Scheme programs easier.
289 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
290 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
291 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
292 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
293 `cond-expand' when using this option.
296 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
297 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
299 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
302 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
304 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
305 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
306 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
309 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
311 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
313 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
314 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
315 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
316 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
317 was also ASCII, for example.
319 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
321 tag - no replacement.
322 fseek - replaced by seek.
323 list* - replaced by cons*.
325 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
329 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
330 (define m (make-safe-module))
331 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
332 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
333 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
335 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
337 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
338 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
339 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
341 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
343 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
344 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
345 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
346 from the issues related to the module system.
348 *** New function: load-extension
350 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
352 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
354 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
355 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
356 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
358 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
360 This function registers a initialization function for use by
361 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
362 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
363 support dynamic linking).
365 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
367 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
368 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
369 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
370 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
373 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
374 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
375 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
376 library and initialize it explicitely.
378 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
379 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
381 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
383 (define-module (foo bar))
385 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
387 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
389 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
390 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
392 (scheme-report-environment 5)
394 (interaction-environment)
400 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
402 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
403 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
404 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
405 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
407 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
408 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
409 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
410 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
411 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
412 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
413 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
414 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
415 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
416 one eval to the next.
418 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
419 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
420 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
421 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
422 subforms are at the top-level as well.
424 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
425 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
426 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
427 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
428 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
429 used in a lexical environment.
431 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
432 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
433 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
434 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
435 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
436 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
438 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
440 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
441 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
442 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
443 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
444 new facilities: selection and renaming.
446 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
447 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
448 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
450 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
451 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
453 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
454 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
455 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
458 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
460 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
461 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
462 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
463 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
466 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
467 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
468 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
469 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
472 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
473 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
475 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
476 ;; and all four by upcasing.
477 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
478 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
479 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
481 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
484 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
485 :renamer upcase-symbol))
487 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
488 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
489 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
491 See manual for more info.
493 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
495 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
496 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
497 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
499 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
501 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
502 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
503 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
505 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
506 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
507 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
508 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
510 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
512 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
513 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
515 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
516 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
517 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
518 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
519 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
522 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
523 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
524 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
525 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
526 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
527 successful and #f if it wasn't.
529 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
530 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
531 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
532 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
533 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
535 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
536 objects are usually permanent.
538 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
539 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
541 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
543 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
544 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
547 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
551 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
556 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
558 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
559 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
560 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
561 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
563 ** New function `make-object-property'
565 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
566 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
570 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
571 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
575 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
576 source properties eventually.
578 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
580 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
581 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
582 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
584 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
585 will be removed in the next release.
587 ** New define-module option: pure
589 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
594 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
597 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
599 Export names NAME1 ...
601 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
602 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
608 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
611 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
616 ** New function: object->string OBJ
618 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
620 ** New function: port? X
622 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
623 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
625 ** New function: file-port?
627 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
629 ** New function: port-for-each proc
631 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
632 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
633 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
634 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
635 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
637 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
639 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
640 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
641 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
642 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
643 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
646 ** New function: close-fdes fd
648 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
649 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
650 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
651 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
654 ** New function: crypt password salt
656 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
659 ** New function: chroot path
661 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
663 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
665 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
668 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
670 Get or set the priority of the running process.
672 ** New function: getpass prompt
674 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
677 ** New function: flock file operation
679 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
681 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
683 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
686 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
688 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
689 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
690 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
691 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
692 of the temporary file.
694 ** New function: open-input-string string
696 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
697 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
698 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
700 ** New function: open-output-string
702 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
703 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
705 ** New function: get-output-string
707 Return the contents of an output string port.
709 ** New function: identity
713 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
714 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
716 ** New function: inet-pton family address
718 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
719 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
720 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
723 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
724 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
726 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
728 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
729 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
730 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
733 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
734 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
735 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
739 Use `identity' instead.
745 ** Deprecated: return-it
749 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
751 Use `string-length' instead.
755 Use `logior' instead.
757 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
759 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
760 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
761 port-for-each is more flexible.
763 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
764 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
765 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
767 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
769 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
771 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
773 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
775 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
777 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
778 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
780 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
781 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
783 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
784 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
786 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
788 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
789 Removed function: builtin-bindings
791 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
792 Use module system operations for all variables.
794 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
796 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
799 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
801 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
802 The following bugs have been fixed:
804 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
805 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
808 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
809 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
810 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
812 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
813 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
815 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
816 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
819 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
820 The expansion used to be like so:
822 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
824 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
826 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
828 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
829 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
831 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
833 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
834 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
835 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
839 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
840 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
842 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
847 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
848 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
850 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
851 and `d', other keywords allowed.
852 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
854 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
857 * Changes to the C interface
859 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
861 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
862 with "_t". What a concept.
864 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
866 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
868 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
872 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
873 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
875 *** C Functions removed
877 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
878 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
879 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
880 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
881 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
882 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
883 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
885 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
887 Use scm_mem2string instead.
889 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
891 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
893 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
894 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
896 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
898 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
901 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
903 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
905 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
907 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments.
911 scm_call_1 (proc, arg1);
913 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
915 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list
920 scm_apply_1 (proc, arg1, args);
922 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
924 Create a list of the given number of elements.
926 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
928 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
929 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
931 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
933 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
935 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
936 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
937 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
939 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
941 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
943 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
944 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
945 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
948 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
950 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
952 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
953 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
955 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
957 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
958 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
959 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
960 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
962 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
963 scm_primitive_property_ref
964 scm_primitive_property_set_x
965 scm_primitive_property_del_x
967 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
968 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
970 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
972 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
973 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
974 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
975 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
977 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
979 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
980 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
981 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
982 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
983 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
984 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
985 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
987 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
988 scm_remember_upto_here
990 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
992 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
994 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
995 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
997 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
999 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
1001 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
1003 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
1005 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
1007 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
1008 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
1009 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
1010 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
1011 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
1012 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
1014 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
1016 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
1018 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
1019 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
1020 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
1022 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
1024 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
1025 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
1026 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
1028 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
1030 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
1031 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
1034 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
1037 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
1038 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
1041 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
1043 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
1045 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
1047 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
1049 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
1051 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
1053 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
1054 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
1055 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
1056 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
1057 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
1058 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
1059 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
1060 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
1061 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
1062 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
1063 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
1064 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
1065 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
1066 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
1067 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
1069 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
1070 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
1071 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
1072 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
1073 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
1074 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
1075 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
1076 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
1077 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
1078 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
1079 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
1080 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
1081 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
1082 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
1083 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
1084 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
1085 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
1086 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
1087 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
1088 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
1089 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
1090 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
1091 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
1092 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
1093 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
1094 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
1095 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
1096 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
1097 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
1099 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
1101 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
1103 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
1104 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
1106 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
1108 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
1110 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
1112 Use scm_string_hash instead.
1114 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
1116 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
1118 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
1120 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
1122 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
1125 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
1126 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
1128 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
1130 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
1132 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
1134 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
1136 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
1138 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
1140 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
1142 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
1145 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
1147 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
1149 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
1151 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
1152 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
1154 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
1155 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
1157 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
1159 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
1160 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
1161 scm_module_define, scm_define.
1163 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
1165 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
1167 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
1168 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
1170 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
1171 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
1172 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
1173 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
1175 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
1176 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
1177 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
1179 Use the new ones from above instead.
1181 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
1183 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
1184 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
1185 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
1187 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
1188 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
1190 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
1191 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
1194 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
1195 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
1197 Use the new functions instead.
1199 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
1202 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
1204 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
1206 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
1209 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
1211 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
1214 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
1216 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
1219 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
1220 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
1221 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
1223 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
1225 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
1226 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
1228 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
1229 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
1230 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
1231 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
1234 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
1236 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
1237 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
1238 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
1239 inexact for an exact.
1241 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
1242 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
1243 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
1246 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
1247 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
1248 accept an inexact argument.
1250 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
1251 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
1253 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
1256 ** New number validation macros:
1257 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
1261 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
1263 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
1264 scm_unprotect_object.
1266 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
1268 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
1270 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
1273 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
1275 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
1279 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
1281 * Changes to the distribution
1283 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
1285 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
1286 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
1287 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
1288 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
1289 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
1290 obtain these programs.
1291 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
1292 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
1294 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
1295 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
1296 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
1297 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
1298 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
1300 However, this approach means that minor differences between
1301 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
1302 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
1303 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
1307 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
1310 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
1311 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
1312 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
1313 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
1315 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
1317 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
1319 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
1320 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
1322 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
1323 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
1325 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
1326 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
1328 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
1329 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
1330 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
1331 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
1333 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
1335 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
1339 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
1340 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
1342 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
1344 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
1345 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
1347 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
1348 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
1349 number of objects of that kind.
1351 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
1353 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
1354 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
1355 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
1356 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
1357 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
1359 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
1361 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
1363 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
1365 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
1368 ** New module (ice-9 time)
1370 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
1372 ** New module (ice-9 history)
1374 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
1376 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1378 ** New command line option --debug
1380 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
1382 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
1384 ** New help facility
1386 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
1387 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
1388 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
1389 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
1390 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
1391 (help) gives this text
1393 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
1394 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
1396 Examples: (help help)
1398 (help "output-string")
1400 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
1402 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
1404 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
1405 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
1408 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
1409 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
1410 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
1413 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
1414 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
1415 use absolute filenames when possible.
1417 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
1418 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
1419 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
1422 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
1424 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
1425 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
1426 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
1427 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
1429 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
1431 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
1433 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
1434 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
1435 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
1437 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
1438 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
1439 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
1441 (read-enable 'positions)
1442 (debug-enable 'debug)
1444 ** Backtraces in scripts
1446 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
1450 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
1452 at the top of the script.
1454 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
1455 The second enables backtraces.)
1457 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
1459 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
1460 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
1461 substantially faster than before.
1463 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
1464 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
1466 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
1467 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
1469 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
1471 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
1472 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
1473 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
1475 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
1476 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
1477 when this hook is run in the future.
1479 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
1480 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
1482 ** Improvements to garbage collector
1484 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
1485 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
1488 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
1489 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
1490 more and more memory for certain programs.)
1492 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
1493 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
1495 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
1496 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
1498 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
1499 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
1500 in order not to need further allocation.)
1502 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
1505 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
1506 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
1507 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
1508 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
1510 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
1512 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
1515 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
1517 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
1520 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
1521 GC in percent of total heap size
1524 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
1525 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
1527 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
1529 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
1530 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
1532 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
1534 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
1535 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
1537 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
1539 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
1540 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
1544 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
1545 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
1547 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
1549 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
1551 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
1553 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
1555 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
1557 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
1558 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
1560 (simple-format port message . args)
1561 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
1562 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
1563 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
1564 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
1565 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
1566 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
1567 Does not add a trailing newline."
1569 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
1571 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
1572 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
1574 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
1575 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
1577 ** Deprecated: list*
1579 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
1581 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
1583 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
1584 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
1586 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
1587 is returned as result.
1589 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
1591 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
1593 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
1595 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
1596 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
1599 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
1601 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
1603 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
1604 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
1606 * Changes to the gh_ interface
1608 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
1610 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
1612 * Changes to the scm_ interface
1614 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
1616 Thanks to Greg Badros!
1618 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
1620 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
1621 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
1622 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
1624 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
1627 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
1629 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
1630 the readability of argument checking.
1632 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
1634 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
1636 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
1638 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
1639 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
1640 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
1641 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
1642 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
1643 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
1644 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
1646 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
1648 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
1650 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
1651 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
1653 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
1655 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
1656 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
1659 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
1661 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
1662 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
1663 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
1665 Further, it is recommended not to rely on implementation details for guile's
1666 current implementation of bignums. It is planned to replace this
1667 implementation with gmp in the future.
1669 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
1670 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
1671 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
1673 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
1674 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
1675 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
1676 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
1677 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
1678 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
1679 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
1681 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
1682 scm_end_input (object);
1683 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
1684 ptob->flush (object);
1686 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
1687 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
1690 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
1692 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
1694 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
1695 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
1696 removed in a future version.
1698 ** The format of error message strings has changed
1700 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
1701 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
1702 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
1703 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
1705 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
1706 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
1708 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
1711 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
1713 in your configure.in.
1715 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
1720 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
1726 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
1728 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
1732 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
1733 (define make-message string-append)
1735 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
1737 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
1741 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
1746 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
1750 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
1752 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
1753 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
1755 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
1757 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
1758 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
1759 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
1760 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
1761 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
1762 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
1764 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
1765 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
1766 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
1768 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
1769 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
1770 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
1773 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
1774 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
1775 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
1776 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
1777 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
1779 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
1780 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
1781 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
1782 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
1783 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
1784 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
1785 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
1787 Destructors are not yet implemented.
1789 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
1790 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
1791 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
1793 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
1794 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
1795 KEY in the calling thread.
1797 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
1798 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
1799 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
1800 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
1801 associated with the key.
1803 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
1805 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
1806 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
1808 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
1810 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
1811 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
1812 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
1814 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
1816 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
1817 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
1819 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
1821 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
1823 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
1824 returned is undefined.
1826 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
1827 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
1828 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
1830 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
1831 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
1832 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
1834 ** New C level GC hooks
1836 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
1838 scm_before_gc_c_hook
1841 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
1842 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
1843 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
1845 scm_before_mark_c_hook
1846 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
1847 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
1849 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
1850 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
1853 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
1855 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
1856 allocation parameters
1858 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
1859 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
1860 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
1864 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
1865 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
1866 scm_default_max_segment_size
1868 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
1870 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
1871 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
1873 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
1875 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
1876 object and count on the object being protected until
1877 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
1879 The functions also have better time complexity.
1881 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
1882 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
1883 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
1884 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
1885 are no longer needed.
1887 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
1889 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
1890 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
1891 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
1892 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
1894 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
1896 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
1898 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
1900 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
1901 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
1902 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
1903 until this issue has been settled.
1905 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
1907 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
1909 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
1912 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
1914 * Changes to system call interfaces:
1916 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
1917 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
1918 descriptors were checked.
1920 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
1921 atomically written to a pipe.
1923 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
1924 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
1925 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
1926 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
1927 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
1928 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
1929 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
1932 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
1933 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
1934 is changed without calling tzset.
1936 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
1938 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
1939 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
1940 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
1942 (define write-network-long
1943 (lambda (value port)
1944 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
1945 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
1946 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
1948 (define read-network-long
1950 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
1951 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
1952 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
1954 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
1955 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
1957 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
1958 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
1959 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
1960 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
1962 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
1963 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
1964 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
1965 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
1969 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
1971 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
1975 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
1976 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
1977 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
1983 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
1984 for a description of available commands.
1986 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
1987 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
1988 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
1990 (debug-enable 'backwards)
1992 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
1993 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
1995 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
1997 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
1999 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
2000 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
2001 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
2002 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
2003 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
2004 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
2007 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
2009 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
2010 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
2011 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
2012 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
2014 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
2015 the file and should not be affected by this change.
2017 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
2019 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2021 ** Readline support has changed again.
2023 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
2024 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
2025 to activate readline is now
2027 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
2030 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
2032 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
2033 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
2034 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
2037 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
2038 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
2039 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
2042 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
2043 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
2044 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
2045 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
2046 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
2047 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
2049 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
2050 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
2052 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
2054 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
2055 object it receives is the same string passed to
2056 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
2057 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
2058 string, not the suffix.
2060 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
2061 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
2062 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
2064 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
2066 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
2067 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
2068 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
2069 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
2072 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
2074 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
2076 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
2077 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
2078 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
2079 appear from left to right.
2081 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
2084 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
2086 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
2087 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
2089 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
2093 *** New function: hook? OBJ
2095 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
2097 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
2099 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
2100 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
2101 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
2103 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
2105 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
2107 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
2109 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
2112 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
2114 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
2115 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
2116 mentioning it here anyway.
2118 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
2120 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
2121 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
2122 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
2123 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
2126 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
2128 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
2130 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
2132 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
2133 otherwise return #f.
2135 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
2137 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
2138 returned by `opendir'.
2140 ** New function: using-readline?
2142 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
2144 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
2146 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
2147 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
2149 * Changes to the scm_ interface
2151 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
2153 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
2154 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
2155 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
2157 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
2159 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
2160 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
2162 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
2164 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
2165 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
2166 documentation slots are not yet used.
2168 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
2170 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
2171 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
2172 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
2177 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
2178 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
2179 (string-append x y))
2181 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
2182 can also be used for concatenating strings.
2184 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
2185 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
2186 be made in a clean way.]
2188 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
2190 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
2192 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
2194 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
2195 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
2197 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
2199 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
2201 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
2203 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
2205 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
2206 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
2207 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
2208 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
2211 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
2213 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
2215 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
2217 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
2219 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
2220 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
2222 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
2224 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
2226 Evaluates the body of a special form.
2228 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
2230 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
2231 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
2232 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
2233 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
2234 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
2235 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
2237 This should not make any difference for most users.
2239 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
2241 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
2242 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
2244 *** New functions for applying generic functions
2246 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
2247 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
2248 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
2249 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
2250 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
2252 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
2254 It is now replaced by:
2256 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
2258 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
2259 binds a variable named NAME to it.
2261 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
2263 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
2264 This might change when we get the new module system.
2266 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
2270 Changes since Guile 1.3:
2272 * Changes to mailing lists
2274 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
2276 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
2279 * Changes to the distribution
2281 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
2283 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
2284 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
2285 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
2286 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
2287 you explicitly specify it.
2289 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
2290 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
2291 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
2292 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
2293 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
2296 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
2297 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
2298 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
2299 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
2301 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
2302 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
2303 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
2306 You can activate the readline support by issuing
2308 (use-modules (readline-activator))
2311 from your ".guile" file, for example.
2313 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2315 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
2316 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
2317 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
2318 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
2320 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
2321 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
2324 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2326 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
2327 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
2328 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
2329 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
2330 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
2331 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
2332 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
2333 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
2345 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
2346 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
2347 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
2348 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
2349 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
2354 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
2355 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
2363 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
2368 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
2369 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
2372 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
2373 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
2374 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
2375 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
2377 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
2379 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
2381 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
2382 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
2384 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
2386 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
2388 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
2389 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
2391 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
2394 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
2396 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
2398 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
2400 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
2402 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
2404 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
2406 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
2407 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
2408 when the hook was created.
2410 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
2411 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
2412 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
2413 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
2414 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
2415 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
2416 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
2417 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
2418 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
2420 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
2421 the dlopen family of functions.
2423 ** New function `provided?'
2425 - Function: provided? FEATURE
2426 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
2427 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
2428 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
2430 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
2432 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
2433 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
2434 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
2435 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
2438 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
2439 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
2440 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
2441 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
2443 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
2444 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
2445 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
2448 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
2449 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
2450 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
2451 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
2452 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
2453 but with the flag set.
2455 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
2457 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
2458 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
2460 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
2461 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
2462 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
2463 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
2464 available Scheme format implementations.
2466 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
2467 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
2468 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
2469 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
2470 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
2471 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
2472 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
2473 output is to the current error port if available by the
2474 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
2477 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
2478 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
2479 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
2480 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
2481 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
2482 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
2483 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
2484 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
2486 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
2487 be executed at a time.
2490 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
2492 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
2493 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
2494 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
2496 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
2497 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
2498 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
2499 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
2500 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
2501 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
2502 general form of a directive is:
2504 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
2506 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
2508 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2510 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
2511 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
2512 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
2515 Any (print as `display' does).
2519 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
2523 S-expression (print as `write' does).
2527 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
2533 print number sign always.
2536 print comma separated.
2538 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
2544 print number sign always.
2547 print comma separated.
2549 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
2555 print number sign always.
2558 print comma separated.
2560 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
2566 print number sign always.
2569 print comma separated.
2571 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
2576 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
2580 print a number as a Roman numeral.
2583 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
2586 print a number as an ordinal English number.
2589 print a number as a cardinal English number.
2594 prints `y' and `ies'.
2597 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
2600 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
2605 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
2609 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
2612 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
2613 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
2615 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2618 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
2619 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
2621 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2624 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
2626 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
2628 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2631 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
2633 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
2635 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
2638 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
2641 The sign appears before the padding.
2649 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
2651 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
2656 print N page separators.
2666 newline is ignored, white space left.
2669 newline is left, white space ignored.
2674 relative tabulation.
2680 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
2682 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
2685 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
2687 converts by `string-capitalize'.
2690 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
2693 converts by `string-upcase'.
2696 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
2698 jumps N arguments forward.
2701 jumps 1 argument backward.
2704 jumps N arguments backward.
2707 jumps to the 0th argument.
2710 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
2712 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
2713 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
2715 take argument from N.
2718 true test conditional.
2721 if-else-then conditional.
2727 default clause follows.
2730 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
2732 at most N iterations.
2735 args from next arg (a list of lists).
2738 args from the rest of arguments.
2741 args from the rest args (lists).
2752 aborts if N <= M <= K
2754 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
2757 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2760 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
2766 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
2768 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
2770 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
2771 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
2772 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
2773 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
2774 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
2775 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
2779 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
2783 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
2789 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
2792 Print a `#\space' character
2794 print N `#\space' characters.
2797 Print a `#\tab' character
2799 print N `#\tab' characters.
2802 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
2803 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
2804 must be a positive decimal number.
2807 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2808 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2809 be processed by `read'.
2812 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
2813 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
2814 be processed by `read'.
2817 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
2820 prints format version.
2823 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
2824 and format it accordingly.
2826 *** Configuration Variables
2828 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
2829 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
2830 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
2831 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
2834 format:symbol-case-conv
2835 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
2836 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
2837 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
2838 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
2839 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
2841 format:iobj-case-conv
2842 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
2843 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
2846 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
2849 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
2855 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
2856 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
2857 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
2858 `format' padding style.
2861 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
2862 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
2863 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
2864 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
2868 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
2869 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
2870 directive parameters or modifiers)).
2873 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
2874 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
2875 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
2876 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
2877 parameters or modifiers)).
2880 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
2882 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
2884 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
2885 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
2887 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
2888 string-downcase! functions.
2890 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
2891 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
2893 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
2896 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
2899 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
2900 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
2902 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
2904 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
2905 the symbol had be read by `read'.
2907 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
2908 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
2909 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
2910 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
2911 would if STRING were input.
2913 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
2915 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
2916 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
2917 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
2918 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
2921 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
2923 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
2924 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
2927 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
2929 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
2930 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
2932 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
2933 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
2935 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
2936 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
2937 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
2938 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
2940 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
2941 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
2943 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
2944 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
2945 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
2947 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
2948 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
2950 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
2951 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
2952 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
2953 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
2954 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
2956 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
2957 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
2958 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
2959 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
2960 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
2961 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
2963 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
2964 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
2965 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
2968 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
2969 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
2970 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
2971 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
2972 the following grammar:
2973 ((apples (single-char #\a))
2974 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
2975 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
2976 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
2977 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
2978 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
2979 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
2980 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
2981 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
2982 last option in its combination)
2984 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
2985 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
2986 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
2987 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
2989 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
2990 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
2991 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
2993 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
2994 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
2995 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
2997 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
2998 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
2999 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
3000 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
3001 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
3002 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
3003 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
3004 ordinary argument strings.
3006 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
3007 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
3008 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
3009 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
3011 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
3012 as a list, associated with the empty list.
3014 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
3015 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
3016 - a required option is omitted
3017 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
3018 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
3019 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
3020 - an option predicate fails
3025 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
3028 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
3029 (verbose (required? #f)
3032 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
3033 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
3034 (predicate ,string?))))
3036 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
3037 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
3039 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
3040 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
3041 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
3042 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
3045 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
3047 It will be removed in a few releases.
3049 ** New syntax: lambda*
3050 ** New syntax: define*
3051 ** New syntax: define*-public
3052 ** New syntax: defmacro*
3053 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
3054 Guile now supports optional arguments.
3056 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
3057 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
3058 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
3059 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
3060 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
3062 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
3063 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
3064 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
3066 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
3068 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
3069 and examples for `lambda*':
3072 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
3074 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
3075 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
3076 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
3077 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
3078 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
3079 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
3080 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
3081 can be checked with the bound? macro.
3083 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
3085 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
3086 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
3087 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
3088 are given as keywords are bound to values.
3090 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
3091 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
3092 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
3093 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
3094 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
3095 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
3096 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
3097 and until the procedure is called.
3099 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
3101 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
3102 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
3103 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
3104 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
3105 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
3106 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
3107 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
3108 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
3109 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
3110 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
3112 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
3113 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
3114 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
3115 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
3118 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
3120 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
3121 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
3122 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
3123 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
3125 ** New syntax: and-let*
3126 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
3128 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
3129 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
3130 (<variable> <expression>)
3133 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
3134 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
3135 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
3138 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
3139 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
3140 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
3141 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
3142 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
3143 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
3144 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
3146 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
3147 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
3148 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
3149 shadow earlier bindings.
3151 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
3153 ** New sorting functions
3155 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
3156 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
3157 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
3158 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
3160 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
3161 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
3164 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
3165 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
3166 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
3168 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
3169 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
3170 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
3171 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
3173 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
3174 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
3175 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
3176 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
3177 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
3180 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
3181 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
3182 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
3183 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
3184 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
3185 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
3187 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
3188 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
3189 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
3191 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
3192 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
3193 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
3196 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
3197 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
3198 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
3200 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
3201 Added for compatibility with scsh.
3203 ** New built-in random number support
3205 *** New function: random N [STATE]
3206 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
3207 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
3208 returned have a uniform distribution.
3210 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
3211 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
3212 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
3213 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
3214 effect of the `random' operation.
3216 *** New variable: *random-state*
3217 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
3218 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
3219 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
3220 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
3221 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
3224 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
3225 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
3226 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
3227 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
3228 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
3230 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
3231 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
3232 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
3233 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
3234 initialized using SEED.
3236 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
3237 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
3238 range between 0 and 1.
3240 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
3241 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
3242 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
3243 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
3244 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
3245 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
3246 or a uniform vector of doubles.
3248 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
3249 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
3250 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
3251 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
3252 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
3253 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
3255 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
3256 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
3257 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
3258 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
3260 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
3261 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
3262 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
3263 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
3265 *** New function: random:exp STATE
3266 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
3267 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
3269 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
3271 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
3274 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
3275 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
3278 ** New function: make-guardian
3279 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
3280 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
3281 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
3282 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
3283 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
3285 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
3286 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
3287 one object if at all.
3289 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
3290 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
3291 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
3293 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
3294 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
3295 read again in last-in first-out order.
3297 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
3298 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
3300 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
3302 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
3303 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
3304 file position is used.
3306 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
3307 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
3308 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
3310 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
3311 redefined using seek.
3313 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
3314 size is not supplied.
3316 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
3317 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
3319 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
3320 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
3322 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
3324 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
3325 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
3326 and returns the contents as a single string.
3328 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
3329 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
3330 lists in serial order.
3332 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
3333 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
3334 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
3336 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
3337 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
3338 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
3339 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
3341 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
3342 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
3343 and #f if an error occured.
3345 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
3347 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
3348 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
3349 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
3350 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
3352 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
3354 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
3357 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
3359 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
3362 * Changes to the gh_ interface
3366 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
3367 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
3369 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
3370 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
3374 * Changes to the scm_ interface
3376 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
3378 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
3379 binds a variable named NAME to it.
3381 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
3383 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
3384 might change when we get the new module system.
3386 ** The smob interface
3388 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
3389 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
3391 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
3393 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
3397 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
3398 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
3399 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
3400 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
3401 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
3402 will be freed by the default free function.
3404 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
3405 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
3406 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3407 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3409 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
3410 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
3411 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3412 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3414 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
3416 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
3417 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
3421 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
3422 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3423 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3425 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
3426 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
3427 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
3428 `scm_make_smob_type'.
3430 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
3431 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
3432 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
3434 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
3435 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
3436 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
3437 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
3439 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
3440 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
3441 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
3443 *** scm_newptob has been removed
3447 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
3449 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
3450 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
3451 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
3453 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
3454 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
3455 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
3457 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
3458 a string port's buffer.
3460 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
3461 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
3462 function pointers which together define the current random number
3463 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
3464 number library functions.
3466 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
3469 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
3470 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
3473 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
3474 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
3476 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
3477 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
3479 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
3480 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
3483 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
3484 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
3485 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
3486 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
3488 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
3489 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
3490 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
3491 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
3492 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
3493 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
3494 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
3496 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
3497 by libguile and the application.
3499 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
3500 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
3501 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
3502 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
3504 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
3505 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
3507 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
3508 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
3509 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
3511 ** Random number library functions
3512 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
3513 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
3514 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
3516 The default random state is stored in:
3518 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
3519 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
3520 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
3525 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
3527 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
3528 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
3529 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
3530 isn't a random state.
3532 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
3533 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
3535 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
3536 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
3537 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
3538 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
3540 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3541 Return 32 random bits.
3543 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3544 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
3546 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3547 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
3549 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
3550 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
3552 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
3553 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
3555 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
3556 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
3557 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
3561 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
3563 * Changes to the distribution
3565 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
3566 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
3567 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
3570 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
3571 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
3572 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
3574 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
3575 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
3576 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
3577 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
3580 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
3581 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
3582 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
3584 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3586 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
3588 *** Function: batch-mode?
3590 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
3593 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
3595 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
3596 case has not been implemented.
3598 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
3599 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
3600 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
3603 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
3604 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
3606 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
3608 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
3610 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
3612 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
3613 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
3616 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
3617 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
3618 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
3619 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
3622 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
3624 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
3625 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
3626 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
3627 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
3628 find those libraries.
3630 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
3631 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
3634 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
3636 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
3637 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
3638 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
3639 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
3641 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
3642 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
3643 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
3647 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
3649 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
3650 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
3651 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
3654 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
3655 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
3656 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
3657 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
3659 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
3660 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
3663 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
3664 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
3665 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
3666 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
3667 compiler where to find the libraries.
3669 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
3670 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
3671 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
3673 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
3674 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
3675 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
3676 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
3677 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
3681 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3683 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
3684 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
3685 internationalization support.
3687 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
3688 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
3689 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
3690 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
3691 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
3693 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
3694 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
3695 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
3696 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
3697 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
3699 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
3700 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
3701 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
3702 any GNU mirror site.
3704 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
3706 ** New function: add-history STRING
3707 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
3708 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
3709 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
3711 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
3713 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
3714 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
3715 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
3718 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
3719 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
3720 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
3722 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
3724 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
3727 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
3728 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
3731 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
3732 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
3733 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
3734 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
3735 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
3736 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
3738 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
3739 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
3740 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
3741 of the form mentioned above.
3743 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
3744 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
3745 returned in the special `rest' list.
3747 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
3748 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
3750 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
3752 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
3754 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
3756 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
3757 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
3758 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
3759 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
3760 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
3761 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
3762 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
3763 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
3766 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
3768 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
3770 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
3771 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
3774 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
3775 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
3776 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
3780 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
3781 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
3782 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
3783 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
3784 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
3785 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
3786 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
3787 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
3790 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
3792 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
3793 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
3794 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
3796 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
3798 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
3799 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
3801 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
3802 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
3803 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
3805 Why do we have this function?
3806 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
3807 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
3808 primitive, and display it differently, and
3809 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
3810 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
3813 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
3814 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
3817 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
3818 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
3819 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
3820 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
3822 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
3823 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
3826 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
3827 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
3829 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
3831 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
3832 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
3833 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
3834 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
3835 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
3836 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
3837 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
3840 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
3842 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
3843 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
3845 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
3846 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
3847 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
3848 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
3849 properly continue the print chain.
3851 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
3852 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
3853 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
3854 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
3855 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
3856 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
3857 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
3858 print-state, it is simply ignored.
3860 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
3861 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
3862 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
3863 safest to not check for these pairs.
3865 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
3866 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
3867 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
3868 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
3870 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
3872 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
3873 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
3875 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
3877 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
3879 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
3880 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
3881 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
3883 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
3884 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
3885 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
3887 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
3888 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
3889 the following functions and macros:
3891 Function: make-fluid
3893 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
3894 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
3895 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
3896 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
3897 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
3899 Function: fluid? OBJ
3901 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
3903 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
3904 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
3906 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
3907 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
3909 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
3911 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
3912 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
3913 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
3914 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
3915 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
3916 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
3917 modified by `with-fluids*'.
3919 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
3921 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
3922 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
3923 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
3924 should evaluate to a fluid.
3926 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
3928 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
3929 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
3930 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
3931 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
3932 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
3934 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
3937 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
3939 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
3941 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
3943 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
3946 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
3947 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
3948 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
3949 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
3950 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
3953 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
3954 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
3955 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
3957 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
3958 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
3959 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
3961 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
3962 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
3963 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
3964 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
3966 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
3967 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
3968 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
3969 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
3971 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
3972 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
3973 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
3974 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
3976 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
3977 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
3978 their revealed counts set to zero.
3980 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3981 Returns an integer file descriptor.
3983 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3984 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
3986 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3987 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
3989 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
3990 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
3991 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
3993 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
3994 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
3995 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
3997 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
3998 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
3999 default environment inherited by child processes.
4001 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
4002 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
4003 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
4005 The return value is unspecified.
4007 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
4008 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
4009 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
4010 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
4011 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
4013 The return value is unspecified.
4015 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
4016 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
4024 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
4025 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
4028 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
4031 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
4032 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
4033 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
4035 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
4036 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
4037 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
4038 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
4041 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
4042 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
4044 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
4045 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
4046 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
4047 the `environ' procedure.
4049 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
4050 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
4053 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
4054 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
4056 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
4057 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
4058 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
4059 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
4061 *** procedure: times
4062 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
4063 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
4064 return a selected component:
4067 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
4071 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
4074 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
4078 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
4079 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
4083 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
4084 terminated child processes.
4086 ** Removed: list-length
4087 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
4088 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
4090 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
4092 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
4094 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
4096 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
4097 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
4098 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
4099 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
4101 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
4102 extra complexity it introduces.
4104 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
4105 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
4107 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
4108 variable to any non-empty value.
4110 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
4111 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
4113 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4115 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
4116 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
4118 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
4120 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
4121 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
4123 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
4125 ** vector handling routines
4127 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
4128 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
4129 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
4130 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
4131 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
4133 ** pair and list routines
4135 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
4138 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
4140 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
4143 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4145 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
4147 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
4148 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
4149 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
4150 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
4151 site-specific initialization code.
4153 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
4154 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
4155 initialization processes.
4157 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
4158 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
4159 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
4160 initialized properly.
4162 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
4163 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
4164 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
4166 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
4167 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
4168 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
4169 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
4170 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
4172 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
4174 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
4175 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
4176 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
4177 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
4178 objects the smob refers to get marked.
4180 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
4181 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
4182 which look like this:
4185 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
4187 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
4188 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
4191 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
4192 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
4195 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
4197 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
4198 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
4199 you will need to change your functions slightly.
4201 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
4202 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
4203 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
4204 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
4205 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
4207 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
4208 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
4210 int (*free) (SCM port);
4211 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
4212 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
4213 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
4217 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
4218 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
4219 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
4221 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
4224 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
4225 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
4226 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
4228 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
4229 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
4230 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
4233 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
4237 struct timeval *timeout);
4239 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
4240 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
4241 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
4242 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
4243 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
4244 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
4246 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
4247 scm_catch_body_t body,
4249 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
4252 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
4253 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
4254 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
4255 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
4256 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
4257 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
4259 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
4261 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
4264 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
4265 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
4266 spawning threads from application C code.
4268 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
4269 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
4270 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
4271 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
4272 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
4273 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
4275 ** Removed functions:
4277 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
4278 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
4280 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
4282 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
4283 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
4285 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
4287 ** mbstrings are now removed
4289 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
4290 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
4292 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
4294 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
4295 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
4296 their new names and arguments:
4298 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
4299 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
4300 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
4301 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
4304 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
4306 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
4308 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
4311 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
4313 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
4314 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
4315 pass a #f arg to catch.
4317 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
4319 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
4320 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
4323 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
4324 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
4325 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
4326 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
4327 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
4328 reclaim its storage.
4330 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
4331 worrying that some other function you call will call
4332 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
4333 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
4334 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
4335 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
4338 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
4340 * Changes to the distribution
4342 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
4343 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
4346 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
4347 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
4349 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
4350 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
4352 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
4354 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
4355 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
4356 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
4358 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4360 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
4361 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
4362 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
4363 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
4364 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
4365 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
4367 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
4368 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
4369 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
4372 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
4373 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
4374 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
4375 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
4377 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
4378 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
4379 libraries to your link command:
4381 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
4382 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
4383 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
4384 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
4386 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
4387 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
4388 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
4390 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4392 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
4393 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
4396 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
4398 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
4399 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
4400 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
4401 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
4402 searched is system dependent.
4404 (dynamic-object? VAL)
4406 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
4408 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
4410 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
4411 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
4413 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
4415 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
4416 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
4417 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
4418 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
4419 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
4422 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
4424 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
4425 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
4426 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
4427 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
4428 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
4430 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
4432 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
4433 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
4435 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
4437 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
4438 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
4439 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
4442 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
4444 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
4445 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
4446 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
4447 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
4449 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
4450 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
4452 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
4454 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
4455 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
4457 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
4459 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
4460 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
4468 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
4470 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
4471 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
4472 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
4473 a more informative way.
4475 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
4476 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
4477 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
4478 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
4479 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
4480 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
4482 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
4483 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
4486 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
4487 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
4488 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
4491 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
4492 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
4493 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
4494 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
4495 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
4496 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
4498 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
4499 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
4500 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
4501 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
4504 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
4505 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
4506 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
4507 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
4508 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
4509 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
4511 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
4512 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
4513 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
4514 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
4515 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
4517 *** regexp functions
4519 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
4520 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
4521 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
4523 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
4524 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
4525 with SCSH regular expressions.
4527 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
4528 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
4529 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
4530 position of STR at which to begin matching.
4532 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
4533 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
4534 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
4535 `string-match' returns `#f'.
4537 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
4538 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
4539 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
4540 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
4541 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
4542 match strings against the compiled regexp.
4544 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
4545 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
4546 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
4547 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
4548 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
4550 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
4552 **** Constant: regexp/extended
4553 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
4554 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
4555 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
4557 **** Constant: regexp/icase
4558 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
4559 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
4561 **** Constant: regexp/newline
4562 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
4564 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
4567 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
4568 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
4569 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
4571 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
4572 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
4573 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
4575 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
4576 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
4577 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
4578 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
4579 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
4582 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
4584 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
4585 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
4586 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
4587 used when different portions of a string are passed to
4588 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
4589 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
4591 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
4592 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
4593 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
4595 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
4596 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
4599 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
4600 and replace them with the contents of another string.
4602 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
4603 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
4604 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
4605 may be one of the following arguments:
4607 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
4609 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
4611 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
4612 the regexp match is written.
4614 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
4615 following the regexp match is written.
4617 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
4618 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
4621 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
4622 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
4623 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
4624 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
4625 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
4626 which should be matched against this regular expression.
4628 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
4631 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
4632 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
4633 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
4634 written out to PORT.
4636 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
4637 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
4638 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
4639 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
4640 will return after processing a single match.
4642 *** Match Structures
4644 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
4645 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
4646 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
4647 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
4648 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
4649 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
4652 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
4653 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
4654 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
4655 information about the original target string that was matched against a
4656 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
4658 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
4659 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
4660 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
4662 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
4663 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
4664 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
4665 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
4666 number N did not match, return `#f'.
4668 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
4669 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
4671 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
4672 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
4674 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
4675 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
4677 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
4678 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
4680 **** Function: match:count MATCH
4681 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
4682 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
4683 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
4685 **** Function: match:string MATCH
4686 Return the original TARGET string.
4688 *** Backslash Escapes
4690 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
4691 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
4692 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
4693 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
4694 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
4695 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
4697 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
4698 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
4699 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
4700 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
4701 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
4702 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
4703 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
4704 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
4706 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
4707 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
4708 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
4709 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
4710 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
4711 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
4712 each match a single backslash in the target string.
4714 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
4715 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
4716 return the resulting string.
4718 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
4719 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
4720 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
4721 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
4722 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
4723 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
4724 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
4725 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
4726 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
4727 translated to the single character `*'.
4729 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
4730 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
4731 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
4732 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
4733 consecutive backslashes:
4735 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
4737 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
4738 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
4739 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
4741 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
4742 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
4743 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
4744 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
4745 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
4746 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
4748 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
4750 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
4751 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
4752 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
4753 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
4754 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
4755 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
4756 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
4757 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
4758 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
4759 cumbersome escape syntax.
4761 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4763 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4765 * Changes to system call interfaces:
4767 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
4770 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
4772 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
4774 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
4777 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
4778 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
4779 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
4780 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
4781 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
4783 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
4784 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
4785 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
4786 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
4787 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
4788 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
4789 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
4792 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
4793 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
4794 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
4797 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
4798 `force-output' on every port open for output.
4800 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
4801 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
4802 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
4803 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
4804 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
4805 installed, you can say:
4807 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
4810 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4812 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
4813 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
4814 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
4815 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
4816 new dynamic roots and threads.
4819 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
4821 * Changes to the distribution.
4823 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
4825 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
4826 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
4827 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
4828 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
4829 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
4830 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
4831 programming language. These are packaged together because the
4832 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
4834 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
4837 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
4838 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
4843 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4845 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
4846 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
4848 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
4849 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
4850 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
4851 the (command-line) function.
4852 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
4853 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
4854 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
4856 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
4857 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
4858 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
4859 command line arguments
4860 -ds do -s script at this point
4861 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
4862 -h, --help display this help and exit
4863 -v, --version display version information and exit
4864 \ read arguments from following script lines
4866 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
4867 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
4869 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
4872 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
4876 (main (command-line))
4878 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
4880 ekko a speckled gecko
4882 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
4883 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
4884 following list of command-line arguments:
4886 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
4888 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
4889 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
4890 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
4891 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
4892 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
4894 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
4896 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
4898 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
4899 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
4902 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
4903 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
4904 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
4905 SCSH) for circumventing them.
4907 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
4908 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
4909 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
4910 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
4912 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
4916 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
4920 If the user invokes this script as follows:
4922 ekko a speckled gecko
4924 Unix expands this into
4926 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
4928 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
4929 read from the second line of the script, producing:
4931 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
4933 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
4934 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
4936 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
4937 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
4938 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
4939 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
4940 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
4941 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
4942 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
4943 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
4944 it only terminates the argument list.)
4945 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
4946 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
4947 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
4948 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
4949 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
4950 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
4951 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
4952 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
4954 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
4956 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
4957 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
4958 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
4959 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
4960 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
4962 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
4963 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
4964 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
4966 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
4968 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
4969 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
4970 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
4971 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
4974 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
4975 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
4976 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
4978 * Changes to Scheme functions
4980 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
4981 and disabled by default.
4983 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
4984 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
4985 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
4986 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
4988 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
4990 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
4992 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
4993 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
4995 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
4996 (read-set! keywords #f)
4998 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
4999 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
5000 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
5003 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
5004 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
5005 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
5008 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
5009 support for Scheme functions.
5011 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
5012 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
5013 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
5014 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
5017 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
5018 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
5019 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
5022 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
5023 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
5024 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
5027 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
5028 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
5029 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
5030 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
5031 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
5032 display the result as a prompt.
5033 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
5035 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
5036 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
5037 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
5040 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
5041 procedure of zero arguments.
5043 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
5044 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
5045 argument is bound in the current module.
5047 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
5048 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
5049 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
5050 public bindings into the current module.
5052 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
5053 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
5055 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
5056 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
5058 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
5059 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
5061 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
5062 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
5064 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
5065 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
5067 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
5068 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
5069 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
5070 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
5071 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
5073 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
5074 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
5075 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
5076 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
5078 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
5081 ** Changes to I/O functions
5083 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
5084 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
5085 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
5087 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
5088 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
5089 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
5091 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
5092 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
5094 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
5095 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
5096 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
5097 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
5099 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
5101 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
5102 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
5104 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
5105 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
5106 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
5107 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
5108 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
5111 'trim omit delimiter from result
5112 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
5113 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
5114 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
5116 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
5118 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
5119 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
5121 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
5122 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
5123 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
5124 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
5125 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
5127 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
5128 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
5129 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
5131 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
5132 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
5133 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
5134 above, and defaults to 'peek.
5136 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
5137 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
5139 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
5140 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
5142 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
5144 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
5145 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
5146 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
5147 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
5148 a delimiting character.
5149 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
5151 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
5152 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
5153 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
5154 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
5155 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
5156 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
5158 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
5159 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
5161 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
5162 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
5163 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
5165 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
5166 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
5167 the array to read and write.
5169 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
5170 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
5173 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
5175 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
5178 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
5179 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
5180 Values for COMMAND are:
5182 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
5183 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
5184 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
5185 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
5186 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
5187 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
5188 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
5189 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
5191 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
5193 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
5194 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
5195 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
5196 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
5197 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
5198 corresponding return set will be the same.
5200 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
5203 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
5204 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
5205 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
5206 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
5207 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
5208 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
5209 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
5210 special file being created.
5212 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
5213 clashing with various SCSH forks.
5215 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
5216 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
5217 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
5218 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
5219 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
5220 and originating address.
5222 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
5223 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
5224 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
5226 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
5229 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
5230 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
5233 (status:exit-val STATUS)
5234 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
5235 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
5236 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
5237 this function returns #f.
5239 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
5240 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
5241 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
5244 (status:term-sig STATUS)
5245 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
5246 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
5249 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
5250 a valid STATUS value.
5252 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
5254 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
5255 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
5257 Component Accessor Setter
5258 ========================= ============ ============
5259 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
5260 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
5261 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
5262 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
5263 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
5264 year tm:year set-tm:year
5265 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
5266 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
5267 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
5268 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
5269 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
5271 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
5272 describing the host system:
5275 ============================================== ================
5276 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
5277 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
5278 release level of the operating system utsname:release
5279 version level of the operating system utsname:version
5280 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
5282 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
5283 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
5284 system's user database:
5287 ====================== =================
5288 user name passwd:name
5289 user password passwd:passwd
5292 real name passwd:gecos
5293 home directory passwd:dir
5294 shell program passwd:shell
5296 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
5297 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
5298 system's group database:
5301 ======================= ============
5302 group name group:name
5303 group password group:passwd
5305 group members group:mem
5307 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
5308 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
5312 ========================= ===============
5313 official name of host hostent:name
5314 alias list hostent:aliases
5315 host address type hostent:addrtype
5316 length of address hostent:length
5317 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
5319 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
5320 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
5324 ========================= ===============
5325 official name of net netent:name
5326 alias list netent:aliases
5327 net number type netent:addrtype
5328 net number netent:net
5330 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
5331 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
5335 ========================= ===============
5336 official protocol name protoent:name
5337 alias list protoent:aliases
5338 protocol number protoent:proto
5340 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
5341 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
5345 ========================= ===============
5346 official service name servent:name
5347 alias list servent:aliases
5348 port number servent:port
5349 protocol to use servent:proto
5351 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
5352 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
5355 ======================================== ===============
5356 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
5357 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
5358 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
5359 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
5361 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
5362 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
5363 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
5365 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
5366 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
5368 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
5369 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
5371 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
5372 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
5374 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
5376 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
5378 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
5379 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
5380 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
5382 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
5383 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
5384 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
5385 return the remaining characters as a string.
5387 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
5388 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
5389 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
5391 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
5393 * Changes to the gh_ interface
5395 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
5398 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
5401 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
5402 and returns the array
5404 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
5405 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
5406 the user to interpret the data both ways.
5408 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5410 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
5411 symbol's value from C code:
5413 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
5414 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
5415 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
5416 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
5418 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
5419 without assigning them a value.
5421 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
5422 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
5423 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
5425 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
5426 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
5427 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
5429 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
5430 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
5432 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
5433 doesn't actually care about that.
5435 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
5436 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
5437 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
5439 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
5440 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
5441 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
5442 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
5443 which we have just created and initialized.
5445 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
5446 should one occur. We call it like this:
5447 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
5449 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
5450 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
5451 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
5452 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
5453 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
5454 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
5457 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
5458 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
5459 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
5460 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
5461 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
5462 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
5463 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
5466 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
5467 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
5468 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
5469 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
5470 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
5473 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
5474 scm_internal_catch, except:
5476 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
5477 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
5478 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
5479 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
5482 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
5483 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
5484 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
5486 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
5487 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
5488 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
5489 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
5492 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
5493 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
5494 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
5496 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
5497 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
5498 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
5499 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
5500 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
5502 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
5503 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
5504 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
5506 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
5507 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
5508 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
5510 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
5511 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
5513 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
5514 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
5515 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
5518 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
5519 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
5520 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
5521 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
5522 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
5523 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
5524 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
5527 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
5528 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
5530 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
5531 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
5532 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
5533 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
5534 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
5537 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
5538 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
5540 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
5541 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
5544 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
5545 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
5547 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5550 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
5551 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
5552 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
5553 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
5554 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
5555 given the following arguments:
5557 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
5559 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
5561 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
5563 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5566 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
5567 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
5568 command-line arguments.
5570 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
5571 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
5572 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
5573 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
5574 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
5575 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
5578 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
5581 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
5582 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
5584 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
5585 rearranged slightly. They are now:
5587 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5588 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
5589 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
5590 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
5592 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5593 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
5595 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5596 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
5597 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
5598 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
5600 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
5601 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
5603 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
5604 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
5606 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
5608 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
5609 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
5610 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
5613 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
5614 returns a port instead of an FD object.
5616 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
5617 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
5622 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
5625 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
5627 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
5628 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
5629 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
5630 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
5632 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
5634 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
5636 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
5637 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
5638 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
5639 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
5640 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
5641 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
5642 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
5643 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
5644 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
5645 for more information.
5647 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
5648 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
5650 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
5651 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
5652 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
5653 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
5654 following two lines at the top of the file:
5656 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5659 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
5660 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
5661 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
5663 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
5665 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
5667 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
5670 (display (car args))
5671 (if (pair? (cdr args))
5673 (loop (cdr args)))))
5676 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
5677 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
5678 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
5679 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
5680 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
5681 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
5685 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
5688 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
5691 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
5693 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
5694 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
5695 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
5696 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
5697 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
5700 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
5701 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
5702 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
5703 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
5704 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
5707 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
5710 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
5711 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
5712 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
5715 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
5716 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
5717 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
5719 to see a backtrace, and
5720 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
5721 to see them by default.
5725 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
5727 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
5729 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
5730 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
5733 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
5734 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
5735 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
5736 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
5739 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
5740 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
5741 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
5742 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
5743 functions which inspired them.
5745 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
5746 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
5750 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
5752 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
5754 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
5755 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
5758 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
5759 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
5760 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
5762 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
5763 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
5764 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
5765 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
5766 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
5768 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
5770 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
5771 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
5772 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
5775 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
5778 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
5780 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
5781 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
5782 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
5783 above should serve their purposes.
5785 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
5786 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
5787 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
5788 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
5790 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
5793 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
5794 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
5795 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
5796 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
5798 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
5799 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
5800 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
5801 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
5803 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
5804 for the `read' function.
5807 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
5808 to that of `integer?'.
5810 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
5811 use the R4RS names for these functions.
5813 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
5814 it simply returns the object's property list.
5816 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
5817 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
5818 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
5819 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
5821 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
5823 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
5826 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
5828 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
5829 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
5831 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
5833 void (*main_func) (),
5836 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
5837 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
5838 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
5839 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
5840 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
5842 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
5843 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
5844 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
5845 know which arguments have been processed.
5847 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
5848 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
5849 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
5850 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
5851 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
5853 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
5854 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
5855 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
5856 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
5857 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
5858 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
5859 people from making that mistake.
5861 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
5862 convenient ways to override these when desired.
5864 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
5866 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
5870 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
5873 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
5874 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
5875 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
5876 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
5879 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
5880 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
5881 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
5882 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
5885 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
5886 have been added to the Guile library.
5888 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
5889 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
5890 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
5893 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
5894 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
5895 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
5897 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
5898 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
5899 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
5900 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
5901 argument from the list.
5904 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
5907 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
5908 null-terminated string, and returns it.
5910 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
5911 to a Scheme port object.
5913 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
5914 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
5919 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
5921 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
5922 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
5923 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
5924 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
5925 code as a special datatype.
5927 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
5928 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
5929 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
5930 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
5931 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
5934 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
5935 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
5936 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
5937 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
5938 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
5940 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
5943 Copyright information:
5945 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5947 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
5948 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
5949 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
5950 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
5952 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
5953 of this document, or of portions of it,
5954 under the above conditions, provided also that they
5955 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
5960 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"