1 Guile NEWS --- history of user-visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Guile bug reports to bug-guile@gnu.org.
8 Note: During the 1.9 series, we will keep an incremental NEWS for the
9 latest prerelease, and a full NEWS corresponding to 1.8 -> 2.0.
11 Changes in 1.9.14 (since the 1.9.13 prerelease):
13 ** New module: `(ice-9 futures)'.
15 See "Futures" in the manual, for more information.
17 ** Add bindings to GNU `sched_setaffinity' and `sched_getaffinity'.
19 See "Processes" in the manual, for more information.
21 ** New module `(srfi srfi-38)', External Representation for Data With Shared Structure
23 See "SRFI-38" in the manual, for more information. Thanks to Andreas
26 ** New module: `(web uri)', URI data type, parser, and unparser
27 ** New module: `(web http)', HTTP header parsers and unparsers
28 ** New module: `(web request)', HTTP request data type, reader, and writer
29 ** New module: `(web response)', HTTP response data type, reader, and writer
30 ** New module: `(web server)', Generic HTTP server
31 ** New module: `(ice-9 poll)', a poll wrapper
32 ** New module: `(web server http)', HTTP-over-TCP web server implementation
34 See "Web" in the manual, for more information, but as a taste of things,
35 try the following command line:
37 meta/guile examples/web/debug-sxml.scm
39 Then visit http://localhost:8080/ in your web browser. Let us know how
42 ** Better Emacs Lisp implementation
44 Brian Templeton's Summer-of-Code work was finally merged in, which
45 should improve the state of Guile's Elisp support. There is still some
46 work to do, so patches are welcome!
50 There were many fixes and enhancements to the R6RS support. Thanks to
51 Julian Graham, Andreas Rottmann, and Göran Weinholt.
53 ** Expression-oriented readline history
55 Guile's readline history now tries to operate on expressions instead of
56 input lines. Let us know what you think!
58 ** Better syntax errors
60 The Scheme expander, Ecmascript compiler, and other language
61 implementations now produce more useful syntax errors. The default
62 error handlers print them out more nicely now.
64 ** Lots of documentation updates
66 In particular, the documentation for GOOPS and regular expressions has
67 seen some work. Unfortunately the code has come too fast and furious
68 for full documentary folios, so some of the new modules are still
71 ** Better pretty-printing
73 Indentation recognizes more special forms, like `syntax-case', and read
74 macros like `quote' are printed better.
76 ** Multicast socket options
78 Support was added for the IP_MULTICAST_TTL and IP_MULTICAST_IF socket
79 options. See "Network Sockets and Communication" in the manual, for
82 ** Deprecate `cuserid'
84 `cuserid' has been deprecated, as it only returns 8 bytes of a user's
85 login. Use `(passwd:name (getpwuid (geteuid)))' instead.
87 ** New procedure `reload-module', and `,reload' REPL command
89 See "Module System Reflection" and "Module Commands" in the manual, for
92 ** New `,in' REPL command
94 See "Module Commands" in the manual, for more information.
96 ** Allow user-defined REPL meta-commands
98 This feature is not documented yet. See `define-meta-command' in
99 `(system repl command)'.
101 ** Add support for unbound fluids
103 See `make-unbound-fluid', `fluid-unset!', and `fluid-bound?' in the
106 ** Add `variable-unset!'
108 See "Variables" in the manual, for more details.
110 ** New procedures: `compose', `negate', and `const'
112 See "Higher-Order Functions" in the manual, for more information.
114 ** Command line additions
116 The guile binary now supports a new switch "-x", which can be used to
117 extend the list of filename extensions tried when loading files
120 ** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes
122 Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information.
126 Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series):
128 * New modules (see the manual for details)
130 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
131 ** `(srfi srfi-27)', sources of random bits
132 ** `(srfi srfi-42)', eager comprehensions
133 ** `(srfi srfi-45)', primitives for expressing iterative lazy algorithms
134 ** `(srfi srfi-67)', compare procedures
135 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
136 ** `(rnrs bytevectors)', the R6RS bytevector API
137 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
138 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
139 ** `(ice-9 vlist)', lists with constant-time random access; hash lists
140 ** `(system foreign)', foreign function interface
141 ** `(sxml match)', a pattern matcher for SXML
142 ** `(srfi srfi-9 gnu)', extensions to the SRFI-9 record library
143 ** `(system vm coverage)', a line-by-line code coverage library
145 ** Replaced `(ice-9 match)' with Alex Shinn's compatible, hygienic matcher.
147 Guile's copy of Andrew K. Wright's `match' library has been replaced by
148 a compatible hygienic implementation by Alex Shinn. It is now
149 documented, see "Pattern Matching" in the manual.
151 Compared to Andrew K. Wright's `match', the new `match' lacks
152 `match-define', `match:error-control', `match:set-error-control',
153 `match:error', `match:set-error', and all structure-related procedures.
155 ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
157 The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
158 toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
159 "Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
161 ** Integration of lalr-scm, a parser generator
163 Guile has included Dominique Boucher's fine `lalr-scm' parser generator
164 as `(system base lalr)'. See "LALR(1) Parsing" in the manual, for more
167 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
169 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
171 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
172 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
174 ** Evaluating Scheme code does not use the C stack.
176 Besides when compiling Guile itself, Guile no longer uses a recursive C
177 function as an evaluator. This obviates the need to check the C stack
178 pointer for overflow. Continuations still capture the C stack, however.
180 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
181 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
183 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
184 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
185 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
188 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
190 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. See
191 "Using Guile Interactively" in the manual, for more information.
193 ** Remove old Emacs interface
195 Guile had an unused `--emacs' command line argument that was supposed to
196 help when running Guile inside Emacs. This option has been removed, and
197 the helper functions `named-module-use!' and `load-emacs-interface' have
200 ** Add `(system repl server)' module and `--listen' command-line argument
202 The `(system repl server)' module exposes procedures to listen on
203 sockets for connections, and serve REPLs to those clients. The --listen
204 command-line argument allows any Guile program to thus be remotely
207 See "Invoking Guile" for more information on `--listen'.
209 ** New reader options: `square-brackets' and `r6rs-hex-escapes'
211 The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
212 `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
213 parentheses. This option is on by default.
215 When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
216 will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS. R6RS string
217 escape sequences are incompatible with Guile's existing escapes, though,
218 so this option is off by default.
220 ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
222 The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
223 profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
224 time. See `,help profile' for more information.
226 Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
227 during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
229 ** Recursive debugging REPL on error
231 When Guile sees an error at the REPL, instead of saving the stack, Guile
232 will directly enter a recursive REPL in the dynamic context of the
233 error. See "Error Handling" in the manual, for more information.
235 A recursive REPL is the same as any other REPL, except that it
236 has been augmented with debugging information, so that one can inspect
237 the context of the error. The debugger has been integrated with the REPL
238 via a set of debugging meta-commands.
240 For example, one may access a backtrace with `,backtrace' (or
241 `,bt'). See "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for more
244 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
246 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
249 ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
251 Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
252 `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
253 include `/path/to/lib'.
255 ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
257 Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
260 ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
262 When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
263 version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
264 allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
265 installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
268 ** Value history in the REPL on by default
270 By default, the REPL will save computed values in variables like `$1',
271 `$2', and the like. There are programmatic and interactive interfaces to
272 control this. See "Value History" in the manual, for more information.
274 ** Readline tab completion for arguments
276 When readline is enabled, tab completion works for arguments too, not
277 just for the operator position.
279 ** Interactive Guile follows GNU conventions
281 As recommended by the GPL, Guile now shows a brief copyright and
282 warranty disclaimer on startup, along with pointers to more information.
284 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
286 ** Support for R6RS libraries
288 The `library' and `import' forms from the latest Scheme report have been
289 added to Guile, in such a way that R6RS libraries share a namespace with
290 Guile modules. R6RS modules may import Guile modules, and are available
291 for Guile modules to import via use-modules and all the rest. See "R6RS
292 Libraries" in the manual for more information.
294 ** Implementations of R6RS libraries
296 Guile now has implementations for all of the libraries defined in the
297 R6RS. Thanks to Julian Graham for this excellent hack. See "R6RS
298 Standard Libraries" in the manual for a full list of libraries.
300 ** Partial R6RS compatibility
302 Guile now has enough support for R6RS to run a reasonably large subset
305 Guile is not fully R6RS compatible. Many incompatibilities are simply
306 bugs, though some parts of Guile will remain R6RS-incompatible for the
307 foreseeable future. See "R6RS Incompatibilities" in the manual, for more
310 Please contact bug-guile@gnu.org if you have found an issue not
311 mentioned in that compatibility list.
313 ** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
315 Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
316 still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
317 compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
318 primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
320 This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
321 to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
322 providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
323 code, and simplifying debugging.
325 As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
326 representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
328 There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
329 takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
330 information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
331 both of these situations.
333 There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
334 public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
335 we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
336 contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
338 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
340 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
341 not apply to the compiler.
343 ** No more `local-eval'
345 `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
346 lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
347 environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
348 and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
351 If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
352 own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
355 ** Scheme source files will now be compiled automatically.
357 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
358 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
359 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
361 Note that this mechanism depends on the timestamp of the .go file being
362 newer than that of the .scm file; if the .scm or .go files are moved
363 after installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
366 Autocompiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
367 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
368 will be created if needed.
370 To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
371 variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line.
373 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
375 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
376 in the next prerelease.
378 ** New POSIX procedure: `getsid'
380 Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
382 ** New POSIX procedure: `getaddrinfo'
384 Scheme binding for the `getaddrinfo' C library function.
386 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
388 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
389 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
390 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments'
392 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
393 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
394 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
395 procedures' docstrings for more information.
397 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
398 combining arity and formals. For example:
400 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
401 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
403 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
406 ** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
408 These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are
409 no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you
410 probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will
411 probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway).
413 ** New language: ECMAScript
415 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
416 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
417 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
418 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
420 ** New language: Brainfuck
422 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
423 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
424 languages. See the manual for details, or
425 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
426 Brainfuck language itself.
428 ** New language: Elisp
430 Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can
431 now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel
432 Kraft, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
434 ** Better documentation infrastructure for macros
436 It is now possible to introspect on the type of a macro, e.g.
437 syntax-rules, identifier-syntax, etc, and extract information about that
438 macro, such as the syntax-rules patterns or the defmacro arguments.
439 `(texinfo reflection)' takes advantage of this to give better macro
442 ** Support for arbitrary procedure metadata
444 Building on its support for docstrings, Guile now supports multiple
445 docstrings, adding them to the tail of a compiled procedure's
446 properties. For example:
452 (procedure-properties foo)
453 => ((name . foo) (documentation . "one") (documentation . "two"))
455 Also, vectors of pairs are now treated as additional metadata entries:
458 #((quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
460 (procedure-properties bar)
461 => ((name . bar) (quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
463 This allows arbitrary literals to be embedded as metadata in a compiled
466 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
469 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
471 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
472 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
475 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
476 (define (helper x) ...)
478 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
480 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
483 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
484 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
486 ** Support for version information in Guile's `module' form
488 Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. See "R6RS Version
489 References", "General Information about Modules", "Using Guile Modules",
490 and "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual for more information.
492 ** Support for renaming bindings on module export
494 Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
495 export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
496 should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
497 for more information.
499 ** New procedure: `module-export-all!'
501 This procedure exports all current and future bindings from a module.
502 Use as `(module-export-all! (current-module))'.
504 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
506 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. See "Eval When"
507 in the manual, for more information.
509 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
512 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
513 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
515 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
517 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
519 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
521 It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g.
522 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate
523 feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the
524 default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0
525 in response to user feedback.
527 ** Support for `letrec*'
529 Guile now supports `letrec*', a recursive lexical binding operator in
530 which the identifiers are bound in order. See "Local Bindings" in the
531 manual, for more details.
533 ** Internal definitions now expand to `letrec*'
535 Following the R6RS, internal definitions now expand to letrec* instead
536 of letrec. The following program is invalid for R5RS, but valid for
541 (define baz (+ bar 20))
544 ;; R5RS and Guile <= 1.8:
545 (foo) => Unbound variable: bar
546 ;; R6RS and Guile >= 2.0:
549 This change should not affect correct R5RS programs, or programs written
550 in earlier Guile dialects.
552 ** Macro expansion produces structures instead of s-expressions
554 In the olden days, macroexpanding an s-expression would yield another
555 s-expression. Though the lexical variables were renamed, expansions of
556 core forms like `if' and `begin' were still non-hygienic, as they relied
557 on the toplevel definitions of `if' et al being the conventional ones.
559 The solution is to expand to structures instead of s-expressions. There
560 is an `if' structure, a `begin' structure, a `toplevel-ref' structure,
561 etc. The expander already did this for compilation, producing Tree-IL
562 directly; it has been changed now to do so when expanding for the
565 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
567 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
568 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
571 (define (helper x) ...)
572 (define-macro (foo bar)
575 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
578 (define (helper x) ...)
579 (define-macro (foo bar)
580 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
582 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
586 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
588 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
590 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
597 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
598 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
601 ** Support for settable identifier syntax
603 Following the R6RS, "variable transformers" are settable
604 identifier-syntax. See "Identifier macros" in the manual, for more
607 ** syntax-case treats `_' as a placeholder
609 Following R6RS, a `_' in a syntax-rules or syntax-case pattern matches
610 anything, and binds no pattern variables. Unlike the R6RS, Guile also
611 permits `_' to be in the literals list for a pattern.
613 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
615 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
619 (define-macro (ref x) x)
622 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
623 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
624 macros before code that uses them.
626 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
629 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
631 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
632 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
633 (double-literal 2) => 4
635 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
636 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
637 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
639 (eval-when (load compile eval)
640 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
641 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
642 (double-literal 2) => 4
644 See the documentation for eval-when for more information.
646 ** `macroexpand' produces structures, not S-expressions.
648 Given the need to maintain referential transparency, both lexically and
649 modular, the result of expanding Scheme expressions is no longer itself
650 an s-expression. If you want a human-readable approximation of the
651 result of `macroexpand', call `tree-il->scheme' from `(language
654 ** Removed function: `macroexpand-1'
656 It is unclear how to implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though
657 PLT Scheme does prove that it is possible.
659 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
661 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
662 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
663 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
665 ** Incompatible change to #'
667 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
668 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
669 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
670 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
672 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
674 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
677 ** Prompts: Delimited, composable continuations
679 Guile now has prompts as part of its primitive language. See "Prompts"
680 in the manual, for more information.
682 Expressions entered in at the REPL, or from the command line, are
683 surrounded by a prompt with the default prompt tag.
685 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
686 works (with compiled procedures)
688 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
689 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
690 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
691 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
693 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
694 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
695 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
696 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
697 number of stack frames.
699 ** Backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
700 active in the current continuation
702 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
703 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
704 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
705 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
707 ** New macro: `current-source-location'
709 The macro returns the current source location (to be documented).
711 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
712 through to the expanded code
714 This should result in better backtraces.
716 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
718 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
720 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
722 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
723 default. Use the `(ice-9 curried-definitions)' module to get back the
726 ** New procedure, `define!'
728 `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
729 and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
730 programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
731 less verbose than `module-define!'.
733 ** All modules have names now
735 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
736 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
737 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
738 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
740 ** The module namespace is now separate from the value namespace
742 It was a little-known implementation detail of Guile's module system
743 that it was built on a single hierarchical namespace of values -- that
744 if there was a module named `(foo bar)', then in the module named
745 `(foo)' there was a binding from `bar' to the `(foo bar)' module.
747 This was a neat trick, but presented a number of problems. One problem
748 was that the bindings in a module were not apparent from the module
749 itself; perhaps the `(foo)' module had a private binding for `bar', and
750 then an external contributor defined `(foo bar)'. In the end there can
751 be only one binding, so one of the two will see the wrong thing, and
752 produce an obtuse error of unclear provenance.
754 Also, the public interface of a module was also bound in the value
755 namespace, as `%module-public-interface'. This was a hack from the early
756 days of Guile's modules.
758 Both of these warts have been fixed by the addition of fields in the
759 `module' data type. Access to modules and their interfaces from the
760 value namespace has been deprecated, and all accessors use the new
761 record accessors appropriately.
763 When Guile is built with support for deprecated code, as is the default,
764 the value namespace is still searched for modules and public interfaces,
765 and a deprecation warning is raised as appropriate.
767 Finally, to support lazy loading of modules as one used to be able to do
768 with module binder procedures, Guile now has submodule binders, called
769 if a given submodule is not found. See boot-9.scm for more information.
771 ** New procedures: module-ref-submodule, module-define-submodule,
772 nested-ref-module, nested-define-module!, local-ref-module,
775 These new accessors are like their bare variants, but operate on
776 namespaces instead of values.
778 ** The (app modules) module tree is officially deprecated
780 It used to be that one could access a module named `(foo bar)' via
781 `(nested-ref the-root-module '(app modules foo bar))'. The `(app
782 modules)' bit was a never-used and never-documented abstraction, and has
783 been deprecated. See the following mail for a full discussion:
785 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2010-04/msg00168.html
787 The `%app' binding is also deprecated.
789 ** `module-filename' field and accessor
791 Modules now record the file in which they are defined. This field may be
792 accessed with the new `module-filename' procedure.
794 ** Modules load within a known environment
796 It takes a few procedure calls to define a module, and those procedure
797 calls need to be in scope. Now we ensure that the current module when
798 loading a module is one that has the needed bindings, instead of relying
801 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
803 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
804 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
805 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
807 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
808 values to the expected number
810 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
811 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
812 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
814 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
815 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
816 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
817 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
819 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
820 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
821 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
823 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
826 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
828 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
830 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
831 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
832 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
833 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
834 the interpreter would proceed.
836 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
837 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
838 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
839 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
841 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
843 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
844 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
845 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
846 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
847 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
848 you to contact the Guile developers.
850 ** Hygienic macros documented as the primary syntactic extension mechanism.
852 The macro documentation was finally fleshed out with some documentation
853 on `syntax-rules' and `syntax-case' macros, and other parts of the macro
854 expansion process. See "Macros" in the manual, for details.
856 ** psyntax is now the default expander
858 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
859 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
862 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
863 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
864 code in question was memoized.
866 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
867 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
868 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
869 `x432' instead of `x'.
871 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
872 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
873 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
874 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
876 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
878 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
879 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
880 `macroexpand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
883 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
884 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
885 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
886 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
888 ** Tail patterns in syntax-case
890 Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
891 syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
892 are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
893 match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
897 ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
900 Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
901 tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
902 patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
904 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
905 by nonhygienic macros.
907 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
908 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
911 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
912 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
913 (define-macro (ref x)
920 (define-syntax bind-x
922 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
923 (define-macro (ref x)
927 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
928 if you have defmacros that expand to hygienic macros, it is possible to
929 run into situations like this. For example, if you have a defmacro that
930 generates a `while' expression, the `break' bound by the `while' may not
931 be visible within other parts of your defmacro. The solution is to port
932 from defmacros to syntax-rules or syntax-case.
934 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
936 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
937 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
939 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
940 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
943 ** Macros may now have docstrings.
945 `object-documentation' from `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to
946 retrieve the docstring, once you have a macro value -- but see the above
947 note about first-class macros. Docstrings are associated with the syntax
948 transformer procedures.
950 ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
952 The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
953 `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
954 to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
956 ** Procedures may now have more than one arity.
958 This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
959 arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
960 `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
961 Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
963 ** Deprecate arity access via (procedure-properties proc 'arity)
965 Instead of accessing a procedure's arity as a property, use the new
966 `procedure-minimum-arity' function, which gives the most permissive
967 arity that the the function has, in the same format as the old arity
970 ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
972 As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
973 compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
974 Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
975 without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
977 ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
979 `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
980 will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
981 output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
984 There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
985 print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
986 documentation for more details.
988 ** Passing a number as the destination of `format' is deprecated
990 The `format' procedure in `(ice-9 format)' now emits a deprecation
991 warning if a number is passed as its first argument.
993 ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
995 Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
996 have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
997 or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
998 else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
999 APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
1000 addressed by element and not by byte.
1002 So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
1003 numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
1004 endianness, as one would expect.
1006 Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
1007 also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
1008 were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
1009 u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
1012 In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
1013 input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
1015 Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
1016 inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
1018 See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
1020 ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
1022 Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
1023 are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
1024 `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
1026 Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
1027 import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
1029 See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
1031 ** New syntax: include-from-path.
1033 `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
1034 the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
1036 ** New syntax: quasisyntax.
1038 `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
1039 documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
1042 ** `*unspecified*' is identifier syntax
1044 `*unspecified*' is no longer a variable, so it is optimized properly by
1045 the compiler, and is not `set!'-able.
1047 ** Unicode characters
1049 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
1050 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
1051 probably be introduced at some point.
1055 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
1056 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
1057 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
1059 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
1060 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
1061 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
1062 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
1066 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
1068 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
1070 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
1071 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
1072 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
1073 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
1074 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
1077 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
1078 code. This use is now discouraged. Binary input and output is
1079 currently supported by opening ports in the ISO-8859-1 locale.
1081 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
1083 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
1084 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
1085 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
1088 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
1089 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
1090 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
1092 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
1094 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
1096 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
1097 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
1098 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
1099 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
1101 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
1103 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
1104 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
1105 Unicode code points.
1107 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
1109 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
1110 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
1111 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
1114 ** EBCDIC support is removed
1116 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
1117 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
1118 and was unmaintained.
1120 ** Compile-time warnings
1122 Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
1123 -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
1124 `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
1125 invocation. Warnings are also enabled by default for expressions entered
1128 Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
1129 procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
1130 `#:warnings' as above.
1132 Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to
1133 warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables, and `-Wformat',
1134 to check for various errors related to the `format' procedure.
1136 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
1138 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
1141 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
1143 This slightly improves program startup times.
1145 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
1147 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
1149 ** New threads are in `(guile-user)' by default, not `(guile)'
1151 It used to be that a new thread entering Guile would do so in the
1152 `(guile)' module, unless this was the first time Guile was initialized,
1153 in which case it was `(guile-user)'. This has been fixed to have all
1154 new threads unknown to Guile default to `(guile-user)'.
1156 ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
1158 As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
1159 special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
1160 associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
1161 underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
1163 This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
1164 dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
1165 implement method combinations.
1167 ** Applicable struct support
1169 One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
1170 To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
1171 That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
1172 that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
1173 `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
1174 `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
1175 `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
1176 the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
1180 GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
1181 but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
1182 never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
1183 were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
1184 replaced by applicable structs, mentioned above.
1186 ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
1188 A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
1189 call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
1190 instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
1191 vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
1193 ** eqv? not a generic
1195 One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
1196 more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
1197 should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
1198 sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
1200 ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
1202 Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
1203 there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
1204 functions are deprecated.
1206 ** New primitive: `tmpfile'.
1208 See "File System" in the manual.
1210 ** Random generator state may be serialized to a datum
1212 `random-state->datum' will serialize a random state to a datum, which
1213 may be written out, read back in later, and revivified using
1214 `datum->random-state'. See "Random" in the manual, for more details.
1216 ** Fix random number generator on 64-bit platforms
1218 There was a nasty bug on 64-bit platforms in which asking for a random
1219 integer with a range between 2**32 and 2**64 caused a segfault. After
1220 many embarrassing iterations, this was fixed.
1222 ** Fast bit operations.
1224 The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
1225 have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
1226 it's for number crunching too.
1228 ** Faster SRFI-9 record access
1230 SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
1231 and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
1232 inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
1233 (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
1235 ** R6RS block comment support
1237 Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
1238 marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
1240 ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
1242 To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
1243 test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
1245 (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
1246 ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
1247 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1249 ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
1250 ;; separate compilation phase.
1251 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1253 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
1255 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
1257 ** New fluid: `%file-port-name-canonicalization'
1259 This fluid parameterizes the file names that are associated with file
1260 ports. If %file-port-name-canonicalization is 'absolute, then file names
1261 are canonicalized to be absolute paths. If it is 'relative, then the
1262 name is canonicalized, but any prefix corresponding to a member of
1263 `%load-path' is stripped off. Otherwise the names are passed through
1266 In addition, the `compile-file' and `compile-and-load' procedures bind
1267 %file-port-name-canonicalization to their `#:canonicalization' keyword
1268 argument, which defaults to 'relative. In this way, one might compile
1269 "../module/ice-9/boot-9.scm", but the path that gets residualized into
1270 the .go is "ice-9/boot-9.scm".
1272 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
1274 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
1276 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
1278 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
1280 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
1282 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
1284 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
1285 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
1286 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
1288 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
1290 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
1291 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
1293 ** New readline history functions
1295 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
1296 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
1297 History library functions.
1299 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
1300 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
1302 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
1305 ** Deprecate the old `scm-style-repl'
1307 The following bindings from boot-9 are now found in `(ice-9
1308 scm-style-repl)': `scm-style-repl', `error-catching-loop',
1309 `error-catching-repl', `bad-throw', `scm-repl-silent'
1310 `assert-repl-silence', `repl-print-unspecified',
1311 `assert-repl-print-unspecified', `scm-repl-verbose',
1312 `assert-repl-verbosity', `scm-repl-prompt', `set-repl-prompt!', `repl',
1313 `default-pre-unwind-handler', `handle-system-error',
1315 The following bindings have been deprecated, with no replacement:
1316 `pre-unwind-handler-dispatch'.
1318 The following bindings have been totally removed:
1319 `before-signal-stack'.
1321 Deprecated forwarding shims have been installed so that users that
1322 expect these bindings in the main namespace will still work, but receive
1323 a deprecation warning.
1325 ** `set-batch-mode?!' replaced by `ensure-batch-mode!'
1327 "Batch mode" is a flag used to tell a program that it is not running
1328 interactively. One usually turns it on after a fork. It may not be
1329 turned off. `ensure-batch-mode!' deprecates the old `set-batch-mode?!',
1330 because it is a better interface, as it can only turn on batch mode, not
1333 ** Deprecate `save-stack', `the-last-stack'
1335 It used to be that the way to debug programs in Guile was to capture the
1336 stack at the time of error, drop back to the REPL, then debug that
1337 stack. But this approach didn't compose, was tricky to get right in the
1338 presence of threads, and was not very powerful.
1340 So `save-stack', `stack-saved?', and `the-last-stack' have been moved to
1341 `(ice-9 save-stack)', with deprecated bindings left in the root module.
1343 ** `top-repl' has its own module
1345 The `top-repl' binding, called with Guile is run interactively, is now
1346 is its own module, `(ice-9 top-repl)'. A deprecated forwarding shim was
1347 left in the default environment.
1349 ** `display-error' takes a frame
1351 The `display-error' / `scm_display_error' helper now takes a frame as an
1352 argument instead of a stack. Stacks are still supported in deprecated
1353 builds. Additionally, `display-error' will again source location
1354 information for the error.
1356 ** No more `(ice-9 debug)'
1358 This module had some debugging helpers that are no longer applicable to
1359 the current debugging model. Importing this module will produce a
1360 deprecation warning. Users should contact bug-guile for support.
1362 ** Remove obsolete debug-options
1364 Removed `breakpoints', `trace', `procnames', `indent', `frames',
1365 `maxdepth', and `debug' debug-options.
1367 ** `backtrace' debug option on by default
1369 Given that Guile 2.0 can always give you a backtrace, backtraces are now
1372 ** `turn-on-debugging' deprecated
1374 ** Remove obsolete print-options
1376 The `source' and `closure-hook' print options are obsolete, and have
1379 ** Remove obsolete read-options
1381 The "elisp-strings" and "elisp-vectors" read options were unused and
1382 obsolete, so they have been removed.
1384 ** Remove eval-options and trap-options
1386 Eval-options and trap-options are obsolete with the new VM and
1389 ** Remove (ice-9 debugger) and (ice-9 debugging)
1391 See "Traps" and "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for information
1392 on their replacements.
1394 ** Remove the GDS Emacs integration
1396 See "Using Guile in Emacs" in the manual, for info on how we think you
1397 should use Guile with Emacs.
1399 ** Deprecated: `lazy-catch'
1401 `lazy-catch' was a form that captured the stack at the point of a
1402 `throw', but the dynamic state at the point of the `catch'. It was a bit
1403 crazy. Please change to use `catch', possibly with a throw-handler, or
1404 `with-throw-handler'.
1406 ** Deprecated `@bind' syntax
1408 `@bind' was part of an older implementation of the Emacs Lisp language,
1409 and is no longer used.
1411 ** Miscellaneous other deprecations
1413 `apply-to-args', `has-suffix?', `scheme-file-suffix'
1414 `get-option', `for-next-option', `display-usage-report',
1415 `transform-usage-lambda', `collect', `set-batch-mode?!'
1417 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
1419 * Changes to the C interface
1421 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
1423 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
1424 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
1425 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
1427 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
1428 code easier and less error-prone.
1430 ** New procedures: `scm_to_latin1_stringn', `scm_from_latin1_stringn'
1432 Use these procedures when you know you have latin1-encoded or
1433 ASCII-encoded strings.
1435 ** New procedures: `scm_to_stringn', `scm_from_stringn'
1437 Use these procedures if you want to encode or decode from a particular
1440 ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.
1442 `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
1443 `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
1444 available to C. Have fun!
1446 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
1448 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
1450 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
1453 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
1454 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
1456 ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
1458 From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
1459 odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
1460 SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
1463 ** Remove old evaluator closures
1465 There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
1466 structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
1467 procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
1468 newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
1471 ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
1473 It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
1474 allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
1475 Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
1476 defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
1477 solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
1478 both with the old 1.8 and and with the current 1.9 branch.
1480 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
1481 primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
1482 rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
1483 procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
1484 arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
1485 special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
1487 This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
1488 them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
1489 debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
1490 example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
1491 mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
1493 However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
1494 `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
1495 they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
1496 `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
1497 `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
1498 `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
1500 Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
1501 `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
1502 `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
1503 and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
1506 Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
1507 scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
1510 ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
1512 Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
1513 `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
1514 `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
1515 `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
1516 `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
1518 ** Remove unused snarf macros
1520 `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
1521 are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
1523 ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
1525 `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
1526 `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
1528 ** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
1530 Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
1531 they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
1533 ** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
1535 If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
1536 that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
1537 the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
1538 in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
1539 correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
1542 ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
1544 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
1545 objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
1546 trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
1547 trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
1550 The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
1551 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
1552 `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
1553 deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
1555 ** Removed support shlibs for SRFIs 1, 4, 13, 14, and 60
1557 Though these SRFI support libraries did expose API, they encoded a
1558 strange version string into their library names. That version was never
1559 programmatically exported, so there was no way people could use the
1562 This was a fortunate oversight, as it allows us to remove the need for
1563 extra, needless shared libraries --- the C support code for SRFIs 4, 13,
1564 and 14 was already in core --- and allow us to incrementally return the
1565 SRFI implementation to Scheme.
1567 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
1569 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
1571 ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
1573 It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
1576 ** Inline vector allocation
1578 Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
1579 data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
1580 true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
1581 available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
1584 ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
1586 `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
1587 constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
1591 In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is
1592 no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has
1593 a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API
1594 considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is
1595 in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly.
1597 ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
1599 There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
1600 minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
1601 obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
1602 `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
1603 from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
1604 were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
1608 Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
1609 shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
1610 part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
1611 better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
1613 ** Deprecate trampolines
1615 There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
1616 so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
1617 procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
1618 optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
1619 Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
1621 ** Deprecated `scm_badargsp'
1623 This function is unused in Guile, but was part of its API.
1625 ** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
1627 The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
1628 efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
1629 Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
1630 like scm_is_null_or_nil.
1632 ** Better integration of Lisp `nil'.
1634 `scm_is_boolean', `scm_is_false', and `scm_is_null' all return true now
1635 for Lisp's `nil'. This shouldn't affect any Scheme code at this point,
1636 but when we start to integrate more with Emacs, it is possible that we
1637 break code that assumes that, for example, `(not x)' implies that `x' is
1638 `eq?' to `#f'. This is not a common assumption. Refactoring affected
1639 code to rely on properties instead of identities will improve code
1640 correctness. See "Nil" in the manual, for more details.
1642 ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
1644 Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
1645 much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
1648 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
1649 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
1651 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
1653 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
1654 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
1656 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
1658 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
1659 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
1660 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
1661 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
1663 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
1665 * Changes to the distribution
1667 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
1669 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
1670 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
1675 Guile's build is visually quieter, due to the use of Automake 1.11's
1676 AM_SILENT_RULES. Build as `make V=1' to see all of the output.
1678 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
1680 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
1681 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
1683 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
1685 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
1686 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
1687 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
1690 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
1692 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
1693 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
1695 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
1697 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
1698 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
1700 ** Parallel installability fixes
1702 Guile now installs its header files to a effective-version-specific
1703 directory, and includes the effective version (e.g. 2.0) in the library
1704 name (e.g. libguile-2.0.so).
1706 This change should be transparent to users, who should detect Guile via
1707 the guile.m4 macro, or the guile-2.0.pc pkg-config file. It will allow
1708 parallel installs for multiple versions of Guile development
1711 ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
1713 Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
1714 (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
1715 be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
1716 directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensiondir
1717 guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
1719 ** User Scheme code may be placed in a version-specific path
1721 Before, there was only one way to install user Scheme code to a
1722 version-specific Guile directory: install to Guile's own path,
1723 e.g. /usr/share/guile/2.0. The site directory,
1724 e.g. /usr/share/guile/site, was unversioned. This has been changed to
1725 add a version-specific site directory, e.g. /usr/share/guile/site/2.0,
1726 searched before the global site directory.
1728 ** New dependency: libgc
1730 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
1732 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
1734 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
1735 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
1737 ** New dependency: libffi
1739 See http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information.
1743 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
1747 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
1748 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
1749 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
1752 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
1754 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1756 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
1760 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
1761 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
1762 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
1763 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
1764 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
1765 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
1766 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
1767 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
1768 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
1769 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
1770 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
1772 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
1774 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
1775 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
1776 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
1779 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
1782 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
1784 * New features (see the manual for details)
1786 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
1788 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
1790 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
1791 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
1792 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
1794 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
1796 * Changes to the distribution
1798 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
1800 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
1801 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
1803 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
1805 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
1806 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
1811 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
1812 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
1813 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
1814 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
1815 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
1816 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
1817 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
1818 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
1819 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
1820 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
1821 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
1822 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
1823 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
1824 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
1826 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
1827 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
1828 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
1829 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
1830 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
1833 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
1835 * Infrastructure changes
1837 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
1839 The new repository can be accessed using
1840 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
1841 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
1843 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
1845 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
1847 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1851 * New features (see the manual for details)
1853 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
1854 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
1855 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
1857 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
1858 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
1859 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
1860 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
1862 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
1864 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
1865 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
1866 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
1870 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
1871 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
1873 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
1874 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
1876 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
1877 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
1879 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
1880 lead to a stack overflow.
1882 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
1883 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
1884 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
1885 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
1886 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
1887 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
1888 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
1889 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
1890 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
1891 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
1892 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
1893 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
1894 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
1895 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
1896 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
1897 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
1900 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
1904 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
1905 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
1906 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
1907 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
1908 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
1909 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
1910 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
1911 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
1912 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
1913 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
1914 system and library calls.
1915 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
1916 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
1917 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
1918 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
1919 uniform vectors on AIX.
1920 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
1921 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
1922 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
1923 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
1924 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
1926 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1930 * Documentation fixes and improvements
1932 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
1934 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
1935 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
1937 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
1939 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
1941 * Changes to the distribution
1943 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
1945 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
1946 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
1947 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
1949 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
1951 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
1954 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
1956 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1963 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
1964 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
1965 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
1966 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
1967 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
1968 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
1969 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
1971 * Implementation improvements
1973 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
1974 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
1977 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
1979 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1981 ** set-program-arguments
1984 * Incompatible changes
1986 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
1988 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
1989 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
1990 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
1991 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
1996 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
1997 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
1998 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
1999 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
2000 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
2001 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
2003 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
2004 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
2005 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
2006 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
2007 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
2008 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
2009 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
2010 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
2011 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
2012 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
2013 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
2014 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
2015 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
2016 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
2017 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
2018 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
2021 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
2023 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
2025 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
2027 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
2028 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
2029 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
2030 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
2031 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
2032 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
2040 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
2042 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
2044 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
2046 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
2048 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
2050 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
2052 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
2053 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
2054 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
2056 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
2058 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
2060 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
2061 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
2063 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
2065 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
2066 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
2068 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
2070 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
2072 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
2074 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
2076 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
2078 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
2080 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
2082 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
2084 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
2086 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
2087 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
2088 file was on a different device.
2091 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
2093 * Changes to the distribution
2095 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
2097 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
2099 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
2101 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
2103 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
2105 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
2108 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
2110 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
2111 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
2112 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
2113 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
2114 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
2115 items like the versioned share directory name
2116 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
2118 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
2119 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
2120 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
2121 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
2122 with each micro release during a stable series.
2124 ** Thread implementation has changed.
2126 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
2127 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
2128 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
2129 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
2130 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
2133 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
2134 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
2135 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
2136 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
2139 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
2140 in which case "null" threads are used.
2142 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
2143 "Blocking", and others.
2145 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
2147 This is a milder form of deprecation.
2149 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
2150 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
2151 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
2152 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
2153 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
2155 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
2156 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
2158 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
2160 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
2161 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
2163 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
2166 This SRFI is always available.
2168 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
2170 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
2171 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
2172 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
2173 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
2176 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
2178 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
2179 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
2180 parameters without currying.
2182 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
2184 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
2185 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
2187 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
2188 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
2191 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
2192 with a renaming import, for example.
2194 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
2196 The official version is good enough now.
2198 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
2200 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
2201 provided. Use 'make html'.
2203 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
2205 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
2206 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
2207 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
2208 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
2210 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
2212 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
2215 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2217 ** New command line option `-L'.
2219 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
2221 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
2223 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
2224 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
2226 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
2228 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
2229 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
2231 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
2233 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
2234 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
2237 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
2240 (define-module (demo)
2244 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
2247 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2249 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
2251 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
2252 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
2253 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
2255 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
2257 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
2258 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
2260 ** New function hashx-remove!
2262 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
2264 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
2265 barriers and dynamic states.
2267 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
2268 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
2269 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
2272 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
2273 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
2274 Barriers" in the manual.
2276 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
2277 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
2279 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
2281 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
2282 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
2283 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
2284 variable %load-path.
2286 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
2288 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
2289 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
2291 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
2292 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
2293 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
2295 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
2296 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
2298 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
2299 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
2300 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
2302 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
2303 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
2304 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
2307 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
2308 substrings and read-only strings.
2310 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
2311 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
2314 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
2316 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
2325 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
2326 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
2327 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
2329 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
2330 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
2331 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
2332 on an ANSI terminal:
2334 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
2335 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
2338 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
2340 See the manual for details.
2342 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
2344 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
2347 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
2349 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
2350 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
2351 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
2352 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
2354 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
2355 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
2356 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
2359 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
2361 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
2362 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
2373 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
2377 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
2382 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
2386 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
2390 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
2393 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
2394 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
2395 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
2396 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
2398 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
2399 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
2402 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
2405 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
2409 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
2411 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
2412 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
2413 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
2416 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
2419 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
2421 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
2424 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
2425 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
2428 (define-module (foo)
2433 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
2434 has been detected is to
2436 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
2437 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
2438 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
2441 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
2444 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
2446 to your .guile init file.
2448 ** New define-module option: :replace
2450 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
2453 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
2454 for the core binding `format'.
2456 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
2458 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
2459 a prefix to all imported bindings.
2461 (define-module (foo)
2462 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
2464 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
2467 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
2469 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
2470 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
2471 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
2473 ** New function: effective-version
2475 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2476 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2477 to the distribution" above.
2479 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
2481 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
2482 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
2484 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
2486 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
2487 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
2489 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
2491 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
2492 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
2495 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
2497 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
2499 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
2501 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
2502 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
2503 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
2506 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
2507 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
2508 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
2509 'system-async-mark'.
2511 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
2512 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
2514 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
2515 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
2516 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
2519 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
2521 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
2522 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
2525 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
2526 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2528 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
2529 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
2530 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
2531 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
2532 level for the current thread.
2534 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
2536 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
2538 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2539 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
2542 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
2544 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
2546 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
2549 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
2551 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
2554 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
2555 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
2556 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
2558 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
2559 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
2560 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
2561 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
2572 ERROR: Numerical overflow
2574 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
2577 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
2579 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
2580 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
2581 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
2592 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
2594 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
2595 them is also done exactly, of course:
2600 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
2601 for exact arguments.
2603 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
2604 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
2606 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
2608 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
2609 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
2610 equal to a floating point number. For example:
2612 (inexact->exact 1.234)
2613 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
2615 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
2617 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
2620 ** New function 'rationalize'.
2622 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
2623 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
2625 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
2628 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
2629 result when both its arguments are exact.
2631 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
2633 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
2634 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
2635 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
2637 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
2639 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
2640 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
2641 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
2643 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
2646 ** pretty-print has more options.
2648 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
2649 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
2650 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
2652 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
2654 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
2655 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
2656 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
2658 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
2660 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
2661 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
2663 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
2665 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
2666 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
2669 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
2671 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
2672 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
2673 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
2674 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
2675 without the soft port blocking.
2677 ** Deprecated: undefine
2679 There is no replacement for undefine.
2681 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
2682 have been discouraged.
2684 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
2685 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
2686 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
2689 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
2691 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
2693 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
2694 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
2695 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
2696 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
2699 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
2700 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
2701 be removed in the next major Guile release.
2703 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
2705 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
2706 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
2707 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
2708 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
2709 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
2710 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
2712 * Changes to the C interface
2714 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
2715 take a 'delete' function argument.
2717 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
2718 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
2720 This is an incompatible change.
2722 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
2724 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
2725 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
2726 --disable-deprecated.
2728 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
2730 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
2731 Scheme values has been added.
2733 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
2734 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
2737 - int scm_is_* (...)
2739 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
2740 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
2742 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
2744 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
2745 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
2748 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
2750 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
2751 scm_from_int for ints.
2753 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
2754 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
2755 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
2757 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
2759 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
2760 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
2761 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
2764 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
2766 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
2768 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
2770 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
2771 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
2772 following alternatives.
2774 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
2775 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
2776 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
2777 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
2779 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
2780 do the validating for you.
2782 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
2783 have been discouraged.
2785 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
2786 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
2789 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
2791 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
2792 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
2795 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
2797 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
2800 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
2803 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
2805 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
2806 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
2808 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
2809 scm_truncate_number should have.
2811 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
2812 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
2814 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
2817 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
2818 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
2819 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
2821 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
2822 easier to use from C.
2824 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
2825 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
2827 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
2828 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
2829 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
2832 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
2833 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
2834 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
2835 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
2838 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
2839 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
2840 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
2841 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
2842 and is thus quite efficient.
2844 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
2846 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
2847 about the character encoding.
2849 Replace according to the following table:
2851 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
2852 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
2853 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
2854 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
2855 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
2856 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
2857 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
2858 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
2859 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
2861 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
2862 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
2864 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
2866 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
2867 now also available to C code.
2869 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
2871 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
2872 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
2873 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
2875 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
2878 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
2880 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
2881 unceremoniously removed.
2883 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
2884 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
2885 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
2887 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
2888 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
2889 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2890 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2891 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
2892 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
2895 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
2897 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
2898 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
2899 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
2900 manual for more details.
2902 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2903 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2905 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
2906 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
2907 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2909 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
2911 Migrate according to the following table:
2913 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
2914 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
2915 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
2916 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
2917 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
2918 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
2919 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
2921 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
2922 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
2923 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
2924 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
2925 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
2926 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
2927 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
2929 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
2931 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
2932 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
2934 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
2935 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
2936 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
2937 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
2939 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
2941 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
2942 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
2943 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
2945 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
2946 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
2948 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
2949 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
2950 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
2951 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
2953 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
2955 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
2956 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
2957 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
2958 prevent a potential memory leak:
2965 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
2967 mem = scm_malloc (100);
2968 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
2970 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
2971 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
2978 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
2979 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
2983 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
2985 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
2987 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
2988 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
2989 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
2991 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2992 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
2994 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
2996 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
2998 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
2999 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
3000 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
3002 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
3003 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
3005 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
3006 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
3007 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
3008 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
3011 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
3013 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
3014 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
3015 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
3017 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
3019 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
3020 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
3022 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
3024 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
3025 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
3027 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
3029 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
3030 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
3031 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
3033 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
3035 You should not have used them.
3037 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
3039 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
3040 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
3042 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
3044 This macro is not intended for public use.
3046 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
3048 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
3050 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
3052 Use scm_is_real instead.
3054 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
3056 Use scm_is_complex instead.
3058 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
3060 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
3061 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
3063 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
3064 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
3066 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
3067 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
3069 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
3071 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
3074 ** New function: scm_effective_version
3076 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
3077 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
3078 to the distribution" above.
3080 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
3082 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
3083 arguments are now passed directly:
3085 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
3087 This is an incompatible change.
3089 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
3091 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
3092 function in the init section.
3094 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
3096 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
3098 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
3099 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
3100 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
3101 stays roughly constant.
3103 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
3104 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
3105 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
3106 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
3107 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
3110 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
3111 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
3112 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
3113 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
3115 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
3116 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
3117 objects for every type.
3120 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
3122 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
3124 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
3126 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
3127 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
3128 initializes a new cell (see below).
3130 ** New functions for memory management
3132 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
3133 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
3134 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
3135 cause aborts in long running programs.
3137 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
3138 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
3140 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
3141 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
3142 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
3143 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
3144 details and for upgrading instructions.
3146 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
3147 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
3148 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
3150 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
3152 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
3153 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
3154 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
3155 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
3156 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
3158 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
3159 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
3160 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
3162 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
3163 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
3165 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
3167 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
3168 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
3169 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
3170 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
3171 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
3173 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
3175 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
3178 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
3180 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
3182 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
3184 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
3185 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
3187 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
3189 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
3190 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
3192 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
3193 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
3195 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
3197 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
3199 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
3200 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
3201 blocking it is not well defined.
3203 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
3205 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
3206 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
3207 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
3208 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
3209 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
3210 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
3211 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
3212 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
3213 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
3214 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
3215 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3216 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
3217 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
3218 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
3219 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
3220 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
3221 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
3222 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3223 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
3224 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
3225 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
3226 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
3227 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
3228 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
3229 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
3230 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
3231 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
3232 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
3233 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
3234 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
3235 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
3237 * Changes to bundled modules
3241 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
3242 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
3243 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
3244 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
3245 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
3248 Changes since Guile 1.4:
3250 * Changes to the distribution
3252 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
3254 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
3256 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
3257 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
3258 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
3259 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
3260 indicate major changes in Guile.
3262 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
3263 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
3264 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
3265 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
3267 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
3268 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
3269 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
3270 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
3271 micro version number.
3273 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
3275 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
3277 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
3278 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
3280 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
3282 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
3283 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
3284 See INSTALL and README for more information.
3286 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
3288 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
3289 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
3290 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
3293 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
3295 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
3298 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
3300 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
3301 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
3303 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
3305 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
3306 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
3309 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
3311 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
3314 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
3317 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
3319 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
3321 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
3322 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
3323 open-output-string, get-output-string.
3325 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
3327 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
3329 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
3332 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
3334 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
3336 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
3338 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
3339 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
3340 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
3342 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
3344 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
3346 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
3347 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
3356 See README there for more info.
3358 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
3359 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
3362 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
3364 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
3366 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
3368 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
3369 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
3370 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
3372 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
3374 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
3375 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
3376 to be named `and-let*', of course.
3378 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
3379 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
3381 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
3384 (oop goops describe)
3386 (oop goops active-slot)
3387 (oop goops composite-slot)
3389 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
3390 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
3391 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
3393 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
3395 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
3396 in the default environment:
3398 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
3399 %read-line write-line
3401 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
3402 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
3404 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
3406 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
3409 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
3410 can be used for similar functionality.
3412 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
3414 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
3415 it defines two procedures:
3417 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3419 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
3420 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3421 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
3424 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3426 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
3427 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3428 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
3429 write large strings.
3431 ** New module (ice-9 match)
3433 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
3434 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
3436 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
3438 for complete documentation.
3440 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
3442 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
3443 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
3444 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
3445 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
3447 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
3448 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
3452 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
3453 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
3454 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
3457 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
3460 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
3461 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
3463 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
3464 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
3467 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
3470 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
3472 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
3474 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3476 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
3478 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
3479 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
3480 Scheme programs easier.
3482 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
3483 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
3484 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
3485 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
3486 `cond-expand' when using this option.
3489 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
3490 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
3492 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
3495 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
3497 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
3498 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
3499 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
3502 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3504 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
3506 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
3507 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
3508 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
3509 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
3510 was also ASCII, for example.
3512 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
3514 tag - no replacement.
3515 fseek - replaced by seek.
3516 list* - replaced by cons*.
3518 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
3522 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
3523 (define m (make-safe-module))
3524 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
3525 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
3526 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
3528 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
3530 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
3531 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
3532 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
3534 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
3536 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
3537 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
3538 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
3539 from the issues related to the module system.
3541 *** New function: load-extension
3543 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
3545 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
3547 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
3548 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
3549 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
3551 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
3553 This function registers a initialization function for use by
3554 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
3555 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
3556 support dynamic linking).
3558 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
3560 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
3561 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
3562 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
3563 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
3566 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
3567 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
3568 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
3569 library and initialize it explicitly.
3571 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
3572 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
3574 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
3576 (define-module (foo bar))
3578 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
3580 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
3582 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
3583 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
3585 (scheme-report-environment 5)
3586 (null-environment 5)
3587 (interaction-environment)
3593 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
3595 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
3596 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
3597 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
3598 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
3600 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
3601 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
3602 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
3603 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
3604 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
3605 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
3606 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
3607 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
3608 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
3609 one eval to the next.
3611 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
3612 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
3613 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
3614 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
3615 subforms are at the top-level as well.
3617 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
3618 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
3619 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
3620 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
3621 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
3622 used in a lexical environment.
3624 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
3625 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
3626 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
3627 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
3628 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
3629 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
3631 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
3633 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
3634 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
3635 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
3636 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
3637 new facilities: selection and renaming.
3639 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
3640 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
3641 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
3643 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
3644 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
3646 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
3647 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
3648 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3650 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3651 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
3653 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
3654 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
3655 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
3656 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
3659 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3660 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
3661 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
3662 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3664 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3665 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3666 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
3668 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3669 ;; and all four by upcasing.
3670 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
3671 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
3672 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
3674 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3676 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3677 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3678 :renamer upcase-symbol))
3680 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
3681 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
3682 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
3684 See manual for more info.
3686 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
3688 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
3689 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
3690 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
3692 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
3694 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
3695 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
3696 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
3698 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
3699 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
3700 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
3701 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
3703 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
3705 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
3706 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
3708 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
3709 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
3710 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
3711 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
3712 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
3715 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
3716 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
3717 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
3718 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
3719 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
3720 successful and #f if it wasn't.
3722 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
3723 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
3724 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
3725 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
3726 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
3728 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
3729 objects are usually permanent.
3731 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
3732 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
3734 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
3736 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
3737 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
3740 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
3744 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
3749 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
3751 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
3752 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
3753 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
3754 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
3756 ** New function `make-object-property'
3758 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
3759 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
3763 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
3764 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
3768 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
3769 source properties eventually.
3771 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
3773 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
3774 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
3775 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
3777 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
3778 will be removed in the next release.
3780 ** New define-module option: pure
3782 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
3787 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
3790 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
3792 Export names NAME1 ...
3794 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
3795 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
3799 (define-module (foo)
3801 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
3804 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
3809 ** New function: object->string OBJ
3811 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
3813 ** New function: port? X
3815 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
3816 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
3818 ** New function: file-port?
3820 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
3822 ** New function: port-for-each proc
3824 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
3825 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
3826 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
3827 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
3828 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
3830 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
3832 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
3833 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
3834 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
3835 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
3836 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
3839 ** New function: close-fdes fd
3841 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
3842 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
3843 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
3844 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
3847 ** New function: crypt password salt
3849 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
3852 ** New function: chroot path
3854 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
3856 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
3858 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
3861 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
3863 Get or set the priority of the running process.
3865 ** New function: getpass prompt
3867 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
3870 ** New function: flock file operation
3872 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
3874 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
3876 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
3879 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
3881 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
3882 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
3883 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
3884 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
3885 of the temporary file.
3887 ** New function: open-input-string string
3889 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
3890 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
3891 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
3893 ** New function: open-output-string
3895 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
3896 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
3898 ** New function: get-output-string
3900 Return the contents of an output string port.
3902 ** New function: identity
3904 Return the argument.
3906 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
3907 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
3909 ** New function: inet-pton family address
3911 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
3912 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
3913 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3916 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
3917 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
3919 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
3921 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
3922 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
3923 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3926 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
3927 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
3928 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
3932 Use `identity' instead.
3938 ** Deprecated: return-it
3942 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
3944 Use `string-length' instead.
3946 ** Deprecated: flags
3948 Use `logior' instead.
3950 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
3952 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
3953 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
3954 port-for-each is more flexible.
3956 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
3957 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
3958 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
3960 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
3962 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
3964 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
3966 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
3968 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
3970 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
3971 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
3973 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
3974 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
3976 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
3977 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
3979 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
3981 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
3982 Removed function: builtin-bindings
3984 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
3985 Use module system operations for all variables.
3987 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
3989 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
3992 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
3994 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
3995 The following bugs have been fixed:
3997 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
3998 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
4001 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
4002 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
4003 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
4005 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
4006 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
4008 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
4009 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
4012 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
4013 The expansion used to be like so:
4015 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
4017 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
4019 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
4021 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
4022 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
4024 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
4026 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
4027 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
4028 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
4032 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
4033 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
4035 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
4040 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
4041 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
4043 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
4044 and `d', other keywords allowed.
4045 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
4047 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
4050 * Changes to the C interface
4052 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
4054 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
4055 with "_t". What a concept.
4057 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
4059 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
4061 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
4065 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
4066 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
4068 *** C Functions removed
4070 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
4071 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
4072 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
4073 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
4074 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
4075 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
4076 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
4078 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
4080 Use scm_mem2string instead.
4082 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
4084 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
4086 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
4087 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
4089 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
4091 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
4094 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
4096 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
4098 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
4100 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
4101 Evaluation" in the manual.
4103 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
4105 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
4106 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
4108 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
4110 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
4111 Constructors" in the manual.
4113 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
4115 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
4116 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
4118 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
4120 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
4122 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
4123 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
4124 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
4126 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4128 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
4130 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
4131 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
4132 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
4135 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4137 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
4139 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
4140 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
4142 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
4144 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
4145 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
4146 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
4147 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
4149 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
4150 scm_primitive_property_ref
4151 scm_primitive_property_set_x
4152 scm_primitive_property_del_x
4154 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
4155 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
4157 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
4159 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
4160 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
4161 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
4162 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
4164 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
4166 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
4167 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
4168 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
4169 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
4170 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
4171 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
4172 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
4174 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
4175 scm_remember_upto_here
4177 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
4179 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
4181 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
4182 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
4184 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
4186 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
4188 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
4190 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
4192 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
4194 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
4195 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
4196 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
4197 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
4198 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
4199 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
4201 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
4203 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4205 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
4206 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4207 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
4209 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
4211 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
4212 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4213 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
4215 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
4217 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
4218 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
4221 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
4224 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
4225 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
4228 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4230 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
4232 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
4234 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4236 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
4238 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
4240 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
4241 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
4242 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
4243 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
4244 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
4245 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
4246 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
4247 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
4248 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
4249 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
4250 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
4251 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
4252 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
4253 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
4254 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
4256 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
4257 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
4258 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
4259 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
4260 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
4261 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
4262 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
4263 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
4264 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4265 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
4266 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
4267 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
4268 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
4269 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
4270 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
4271 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4272 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4273 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
4274 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
4275 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
4276 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
4277 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
4278 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
4279 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
4280 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
4281 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
4282 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
4283 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
4284 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
4286 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
4288 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
4290 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
4291 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
4293 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
4295 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
4297 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
4299 Use scm_string_hash instead.
4301 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
4303 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
4305 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
4307 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
4309 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
4312 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
4313 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
4315 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
4317 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
4319 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
4321 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
4323 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
4325 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
4327 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
4329 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
4332 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
4334 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
4336 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
4338 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
4339 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
4341 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
4342 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
4344 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
4346 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
4347 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
4348 scm_module_define, scm_define.
4350 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
4352 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
4354 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
4355 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
4357 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
4358 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
4359 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
4360 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
4362 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
4363 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
4364 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
4366 Use the new ones from above instead.
4368 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
4370 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
4371 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
4372 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
4374 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
4375 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
4377 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
4378 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
4381 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
4382 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
4384 Use the new functions instead.
4386 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
4389 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
4391 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
4393 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
4396 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
4398 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
4401 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
4403 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
4406 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
4407 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
4408 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
4410 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
4412 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
4413 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
4415 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
4416 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
4417 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
4418 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
4421 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
4423 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
4424 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
4425 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
4426 inexact for an exact.
4428 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
4429 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
4430 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
4433 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
4434 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
4435 accept an inexact argument.
4437 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
4438 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
4440 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
4443 ** New number validation macros:
4444 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
4448 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
4450 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
4451 scm_unprotect_object.
4453 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
4455 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
4457 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
4460 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
4462 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
4466 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
4468 * Changes to the distribution
4470 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
4472 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
4473 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
4474 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
4475 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
4476 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
4477 obtain these programs.
4478 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
4479 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
4481 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
4482 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
4483 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
4484 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
4485 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
4487 However, this approach means that minor differences between
4488 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
4489 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
4490 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
4494 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
4497 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
4498 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
4499 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
4500 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
4502 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
4504 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
4506 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
4507 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
4509 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
4510 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
4512 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
4513 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
4515 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
4516 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
4517 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
4518 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
4520 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
4522 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
4526 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
4527 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
4529 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
4531 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
4532 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
4534 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
4535 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
4536 number of objects of that kind.
4538 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
4540 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
4541 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
4542 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
4543 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
4544 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
4546 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
4548 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
4550 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
4552 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
4555 ** New module (ice-9 time)
4557 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
4559 ** New module (ice-9 history)
4561 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
4563 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4565 ** New command line option --debug
4567 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
4569 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
4571 ** New help facility
4573 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
4574 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
4575 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
4576 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
4577 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
4578 (help) gives this text
4580 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
4581 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
4583 Examples: (help help)
4585 (help "output-string")
4587 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
4589 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
4591 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
4592 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
4595 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
4596 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
4597 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
4600 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
4601 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
4602 use absolute filenames when possible.
4604 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
4605 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
4606 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
4609 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
4611 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
4612 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
4613 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
4614 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
4616 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
4618 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
4620 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
4621 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
4622 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
4624 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
4625 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
4626 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
4628 (read-enable 'positions)
4629 (debug-enable 'debug)
4631 ** Backtraces in scripts
4633 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
4637 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
4639 at the top of the script.
4641 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
4642 The second enables backtraces.)
4644 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
4646 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
4647 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
4648 substantially faster than before.
4650 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
4651 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
4653 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
4654 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
4656 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
4658 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
4659 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
4660 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
4662 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
4663 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
4664 when this hook is run in the future.
4666 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
4667 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
4669 ** Improvements to garbage collector
4671 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
4672 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
4675 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
4676 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
4677 more and more memory for certain programs.)
4679 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
4680 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
4682 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
4683 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
4685 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
4686 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
4687 in order not to need further allocation.)
4689 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
4692 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
4693 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
4694 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
4695 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
4697 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
4699 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
4702 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
4704 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
4707 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
4708 GC in percent of total heap size
4711 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
4712 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
4714 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
4716 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
4717 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
4719 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
4721 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
4722 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
4724 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
4726 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
4727 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
4731 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
4732 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
4734 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
4736 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4738 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
4740 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
4742 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
4744 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
4745 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
4747 (simple-format port message . args)
4748 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
4749 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
4750 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
4751 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
4752 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
4753 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
4754 Does not add a trailing newline."
4756 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
4758 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
4759 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
4761 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
4762 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
4764 ** Deprecated: list*
4766 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
4768 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
4770 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
4771 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
4773 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
4774 is returned as result.
4776 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
4778 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
4780 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
4782 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
4783 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
4786 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
4788 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
4790 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
4791 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
4793 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4795 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
4797 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
4799 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4801 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
4803 Thanks to Greg Badros!
4805 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4807 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4808 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
4809 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
4811 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
4814 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
4816 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
4817 the readability of argument checking.
4819 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
4821 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
4823 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
4825 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
4826 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
4827 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
4828 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
4829 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
4830 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
4831 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
4833 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
4835 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
4837 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
4838 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
4840 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
4842 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
4843 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
4846 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
4848 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
4849 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
4850 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
4852 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
4853 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
4854 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
4856 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
4857 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
4858 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
4859 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
4860 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
4861 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
4862 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
4864 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
4865 scm_end_input (object);
4866 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
4867 ptob->flush (object);
4869 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
4870 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
4873 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
4875 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
4877 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
4878 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
4879 removed in a future version.
4881 ** The format of error message strings has changed
4883 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
4884 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
4885 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
4886 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
4888 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
4889 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
4891 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
4894 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
4896 in your configure.in.
4898 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
4903 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
4909 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
4911 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
4915 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
4916 (define make-message string-append)
4918 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
4920 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
4924 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
4929 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
4933 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
4935 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
4936 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
4938 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
4940 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
4941 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
4942 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
4943 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
4944 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
4945 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
4947 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
4948 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
4949 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
4951 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
4952 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
4953 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
4956 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
4957 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
4958 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
4959 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
4960 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
4962 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
4963 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
4964 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
4965 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
4966 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
4967 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
4968 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
4970 Destructors are not yet implemented.
4972 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
4973 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
4974 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
4976 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
4977 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
4978 KEY in the calling thread.
4980 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
4981 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
4982 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
4983 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
4984 associated with the key.
4986 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
4988 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
4989 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
4991 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
4993 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
4994 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
4995 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
4997 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
4999 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
5000 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
5002 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
5004 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
5006 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
5007 returned is undefined.
5009 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
5010 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
5011 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
5013 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
5014 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
5015 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
5017 ** New C level GC hooks
5019 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
5021 scm_before_gc_c_hook
5024 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
5025 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
5026 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
5028 scm_before_mark_c_hook
5029 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
5030 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
5032 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
5033 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
5036 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
5038 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
5039 allocation parameters
5041 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
5042 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
5043 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
5047 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
5048 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
5049 scm_default_max_segment_size
5051 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
5053 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
5054 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
5056 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
5058 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
5059 object and count on the object being protected until
5060 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
5062 The functions also have better time complexity.
5064 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
5065 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
5066 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
5067 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
5068 are no longer needed.
5070 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
5072 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
5073 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
5074 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
5075 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
5077 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
5079 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
5081 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
5083 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
5084 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
5085 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
5086 until this issue has been settled.
5088 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
5090 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
5092 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
5095 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
5097 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5099 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
5100 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
5101 descriptors were checked.
5103 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
5104 atomically written to a pipe.
5106 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
5107 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
5108 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
5109 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
5110 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
5111 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
5112 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
5115 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
5116 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
5117 is changed without calling tzset.
5119 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
5121 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
5122 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
5123 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
5125 (define write-network-long
5126 (lambda (value port)
5127 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5128 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
5129 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
5131 (define read-network-long
5133 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5134 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
5135 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
5137 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
5138 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
5140 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
5141 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
5142 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
5143 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
5145 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
5146 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
5147 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
5148 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
5152 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
5154 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5158 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
5159 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
5160 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
5166 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
5167 for a description of available commands.
5169 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
5170 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
5171 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
5173 (debug-enable 'backwards)
5175 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
5176 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
5178 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
5180 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
5182 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
5183 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
5184 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
5185 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
5186 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
5187 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
5190 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
5192 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
5193 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
5194 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
5195 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
5197 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
5198 the file and should not be affected by this change.
5200 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
5202 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5204 ** Readline support has changed again.
5206 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
5207 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
5208 to activate readline is now
5210 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
5213 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
5215 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
5216 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
5217 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
5220 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
5221 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
5222 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
5225 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
5226 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
5227 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
5228 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
5229 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
5230 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
5232 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
5233 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
5235 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
5237 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
5238 object it receives is the same string passed to
5239 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
5240 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
5241 string, not the suffix.
5243 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
5244 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
5245 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
5247 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
5249 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
5250 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
5251 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
5252 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
5255 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5257 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
5259 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
5260 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
5261 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
5262 appear from left to right.
5264 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
5267 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
5269 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
5270 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
5272 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5276 *** New function: hook? OBJ
5278 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
5280 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
5282 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
5283 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
5284 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
5286 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
5288 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
5290 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
5292 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
5295 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
5297 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
5298 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
5299 mentioning it here anyway.
5301 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
5303 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
5304 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
5305 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
5306 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
5309 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
5311 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
5313 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
5315 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
5316 otherwise return #f.
5318 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
5320 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
5321 returned by `opendir'.
5323 ** New function: using-readline?
5325 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
5327 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5329 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
5330 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5332 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5334 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5336 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
5337 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
5338 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5340 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
5342 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
5343 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
5345 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
5347 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
5348 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
5349 documentation slots are not yet used.
5351 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
5353 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
5354 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
5355 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
5360 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
5361 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
5362 (string-append x y))
5364 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
5365 can also be used for concatenating strings.
5367 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
5368 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
5369 be made in a clean way.]
5371 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
5373 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5375 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5377 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
5378 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
5380 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5382 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
5384 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5386 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5388 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
5389 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
5390 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
5391 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
5394 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5396 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
5398 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5400 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5402 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
5403 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
5405 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5407 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
5409 Evaluates the body of a special form.
5411 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
5413 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
5414 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
5415 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
5416 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
5417 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
5418 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
5420 This should not make any difference for most users.
5422 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
5424 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
5425 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
5427 *** New functions for applying generic functions
5429 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
5430 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
5431 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
5432 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
5433 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
5435 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
5437 It is now replaced by:
5439 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
5441 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
5442 binds a variable named NAME to it.
5444 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
5446 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
5447 This might change when we get the new module system.
5449 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
5453 Changes since Guile 1.3:
5455 * Changes to mailing lists
5457 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
5459 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
5462 * Changes to the distribution
5464 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
5466 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
5467 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
5468 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
5469 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
5470 you explicitly specify it.
5472 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
5473 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
5474 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
5475 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
5476 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
5479 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
5480 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
5481 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
5482 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
5484 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
5485 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
5486 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
5489 You can activate the readline support by issuing
5491 (use-modules (readline-activator))
5494 from your ".guile" file, for example.
5496 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5498 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
5499 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
5500 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
5501 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
5503 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
5504 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
5507 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5509 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
5510 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
5511 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
5512 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
5513 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
5514 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
5515 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
5516 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
5528 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
5529 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
5530 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
5531 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
5532 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
5537 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
5538 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
5546 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
5551 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
5552 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
5555 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
5556 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
5557 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
5558 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
5560 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
5562 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
5564 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
5565 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
5567 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
5569 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
5571 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
5572 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
5574 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
5577 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
5579 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
5581 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
5583 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
5585 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
5587 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
5589 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
5590 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
5591 when the hook was created.
5593 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
5594 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
5595 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
5596 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
5597 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
5598 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
5599 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
5600 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
5601 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
5603 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
5604 the dlopen family of functions.
5606 ** New function `provided?'
5608 - Function: provided? FEATURE
5609 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
5610 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
5611 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
5613 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
5615 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
5616 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
5617 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
5618 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5621 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5622 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
5623 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
5624 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
5626 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
5627 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
5628 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
5631 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
5632 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
5633 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
5634 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
5635 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
5636 but with the flag set.
5638 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
5640 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
5641 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
5643 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
5644 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
5645 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
5646 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
5647 available Scheme format implementations.
5649 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
5650 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
5651 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
5652 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
5653 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
5654 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
5655 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
5656 output is to the current error port if available by the
5657 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
5660 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
5661 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
5662 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
5663 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
5664 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
5665 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
5666 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
5667 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
5669 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
5670 be executed at a time.
5673 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
5675 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
5676 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
5677 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
5679 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
5680 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
5681 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
5682 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
5683 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
5684 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
5685 general form of a directive is:
5687 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
5689 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
5691 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5693 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
5694 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
5695 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
5698 Any (print as `display' does).
5702 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
5706 S-expression (print as `write' does).
5710 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
5716 print number sign always.
5719 print comma separated.
5721 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
5727 print number sign always.
5730 print comma separated.
5732 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
5738 print number sign always.
5741 print comma separated.
5743 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
5749 print number sign always.
5752 print comma separated.
5754 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
5759 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
5763 print a number as a Roman numeral.
5766 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
5769 print a number as an ordinal English number.
5772 print a number as a cardinal English number.
5777 prints `y' and `ies'.
5780 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5783 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5788 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
5792 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
5795 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
5796 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
5798 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5801 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
5802 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
5804 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5807 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
5809 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
5811 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5814 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
5816 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
5818 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5821 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
5824 The sign appears before the padding.
5832 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
5834 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
5839 print N page separators.
5849 newline is ignored, white space left.
5852 newline is left, white space ignored.
5857 relative tabulation.
5863 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
5865 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
5868 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
5870 converts by `string-capitalize'.
5873 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
5876 converts by `string-upcase'.
5879 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
5881 jumps N arguments forward.
5884 jumps 1 argument backward.
5887 jumps N arguments backward.
5890 jumps to the 0th argument.
5893 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
5895 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
5896 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
5898 take argument from N.
5901 true test conditional.
5904 if-else-then conditional.
5910 default clause follows.
5913 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
5915 at most N iterations.
5918 args from next arg (a list of lists).
5921 args from the rest of arguments.
5924 args from the rest args (lists).
5935 aborts if N <= M <= K
5937 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5940 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5943 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5949 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
5951 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
5953 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
5954 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
5955 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
5956 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
5957 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
5958 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
5962 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
5966 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
5972 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
5975 Print a `#\space' character
5977 print N `#\space' characters.
5980 Print a `#\tab' character
5982 print N `#\tab' characters.
5985 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
5986 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
5987 must be a positive decimal number.
5990 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5991 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5992 be processed by `read'.
5995 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5996 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5997 be processed by `read'.
6000 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
6003 prints format version.
6006 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
6007 and format it accordingly.
6009 *** Configuration Variables
6011 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
6012 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
6013 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
6014 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
6017 format:symbol-case-conv
6018 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
6019 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
6020 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
6021 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
6022 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
6024 format:iobj-case-conv
6025 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
6026 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
6029 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
6032 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
6038 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
6039 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
6040 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
6041 `format' padding style.
6044 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
6045 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
6046 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
6047 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
6051 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
6052 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
6053 directive parameters or modifiers)).
6056 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
6057 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
6058 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
6059 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
6060 parameters or modifiers)).
6063 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
6065 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
6067 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
6068 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
6070 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
6071 string-downcase! functions.
6073 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
6074 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
6076 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
6079 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
6082 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
6083 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
6085 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
6087 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
6088 the symbol had be read by `read'.
6090 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
6091 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
6092 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
6093 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
6094 would if STRING were input.
6096 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
6098 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
6099 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
6100 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
6101 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
6104 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
6106 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
6107 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
6110 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
6112 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
6113 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
6115 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
6116 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
6118 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
6119 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
6120 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
6121 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
6123 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
6124 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
6126 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
6127 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
6128 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
6130 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
6131 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
6133 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
6134 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
6135 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
6136 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
6137 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
6139 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
6140 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
6141 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
6142 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
6143 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
6144 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
6146 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
6147 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
6148 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
6151 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
6152 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
6153 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
6154 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
6155 the following grammar:
6156 ((apples (single-char #\a))
6157 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
6158 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
6159 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
6160 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
6161 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
6162 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
6163 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
6164 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
6165 last option in its combination)
6167 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
6168 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
6169 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
6170 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
6172 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
6173 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
6174 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
6176 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6177 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6178 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
6180 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
6181 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
6182 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
6183 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
6184 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
6185 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
6186 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
6187 ordinary argument strings.
6189 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
6190 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
6191 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
6192 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
6194 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
6195 as a list, associated with the empty list.
6197 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
6198 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
6199 - a required option is omitted
6200 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
6201 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
6202 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
6203 - an option predicate fails
6208 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
6211 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
6212 (verbose (required? #f)
6215 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
6216 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
6217 (predicate ,string?))))
6219 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
6220 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6222 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6223 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
6224 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
6225 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
6228 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
6230 It will be removed in a few releases.
6232 ** New syntax: lambda*
6233 ** New syntax: define*
6234 ** New syntax: define*-public
6235 ** New syntax: defmacro*
6236 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
6237 Guile now supports optional arguments.
6239 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
6240 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
6241 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
6242 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
6243 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
6245 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
6246 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
6247 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
6249 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
6251 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
6252 and examples for `lambda*':
6255 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
6257 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
6258 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
6259 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
6260 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
6261 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
6262 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
6263 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
6264 can be checked with the bound? macro.
6266 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
6268 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
6269 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
6270 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
6271 are given as keywords are bound to values.
6273 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
6274 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
6275 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
6276 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
6277 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
6278 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
6279 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
6280 and until the procedure is called.
6282 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
6284 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
6285 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
6286 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
6287 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
6288 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
6289 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
6290 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
6291 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
6292 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
6293 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
6295 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
6296 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
6297 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
6298 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
6301 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
6303 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
6304 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
6305 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
6306 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
6308 ** New syntax: and-let*
6309 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
6311 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
6312 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
6313 (<variable> <expression>)
6316 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
6317 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
6318 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
6321 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
6322 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
6323 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
6324 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
6325 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
6326 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
6327 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
6329 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
6330 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
6331 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
6332 shadow earlier bindings.
6334 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
6336 ** New sorting functions
6338 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
6339 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
6340 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
6341 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
6343 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
6344 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
6347 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6348 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
6349 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
6351 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
6352 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
6353 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
6354 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
6356 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6357 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
6358 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
6359 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
6360 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
6363 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6364 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
6365 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
6366 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
6367 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
6368 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
6370 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
6371 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
6372 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
6374 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6375 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
6376 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
6379 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
6380 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
6381 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
6383 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
6384 Added for compatibility with scsh.
6386 ** New built-in random number support
6388 *** New function: random N [STATE]
6389 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
6390 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
6391 returned have a uniform distribution.
6393 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
6394 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
6395 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
6396 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
6397 effect of the `random' operation.
6399 *** New variable: *random-state*
6400 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
6401 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
6402 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
6403 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
6404 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
6407 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
6408 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6409 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6410 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
6411 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
6413 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
6414 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6415 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6416 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
6417 initialized using SEED.
6419 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
6420 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
6421 range between 0 and 1.
6423 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6424 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
6425 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
6426 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
6427 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
6428 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
6429 or a uniform vector of doubles.
6431 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6432 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
6433 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
6434 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
6435 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
6436 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6438 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
6439 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
6440 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
6441 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
6443 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
6444 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
6445 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
6446 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6448 *** New function: random:exp STATE
6449 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
6450 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
6452 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
6454 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
6457 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
6458 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
6461 ** New function: make-guardian
6462 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
6463 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
6464 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
6465 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
6466 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
6468 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
6469 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
6470 one object if at all.
6472 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
6473 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
6474 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
6476 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
6477 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
6478 read again in last-in first-out order.
6480 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
6481 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
6483 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
6485 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
6486 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
6487 file position is used.
6489 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
6490 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
6491 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
6493 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
6494 redefined using seek.
6496 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
6497 size is not supplied.
6499 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
6500 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
6502 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
6503 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
6505 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
6507 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
6508 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
6509 and returns the contents as a single string.
6511 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
6512 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
6513 lists in serial order.
6515 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
6516 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
6517 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
6519 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
6520 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
6521 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
6522 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
6524 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
6525 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
6526 and #f if an error occured.
6528 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
6530 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
6531 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
6532 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
6533 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
6535 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
6537 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
6540 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
6542 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
6545 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6549 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
6550 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
6552 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
6553 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
6557 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6559 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
6561 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
6562 binds a variable named NAME to it.
6564 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
6566 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
6567 might change when we get the new module system.
6569 ** The smob interface
6571 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
6572 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
6574 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
6576 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
6580 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
6581 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
6582 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
6583 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
6584 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
6585 will be freed by the default free function.
6587 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6588 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
6589 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6590 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6592 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6593 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
6594 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6595 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6597 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
6599 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
6600 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
6604 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
6605 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6606 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6608 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
6609 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
6610 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6611 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6613 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
6614 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
6615 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
6617 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
6618 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
6619 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
6620 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
6622 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
6623 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
6624 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
6626 *** scm_newptob has been removed
6630 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
6632 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
6633 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
6634 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
6636 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
6637 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
6638 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
6640 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
6641 a string port's buffer.
6643 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
6644 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
6645 function pointers which together define the current random number
6646 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
6647 number library functions.
6649 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
6652 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
6653 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
6656 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
6657 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6659 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
6660 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
6662 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
6663 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
6666 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
6667 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
6668 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
6669 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
6671 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
6672 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
6673 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
6674 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
6675 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
6676 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
6677 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
6679 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
6680 by libguile and the application.
6682 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6683 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6684 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
6685 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
6687 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
6688 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
6690 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6691 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
6692 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
6694 ** Random number library functions
6695 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
6696 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
6697 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
6699 The default random state is stored in:
6701 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
6702 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
6703 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
6708 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
6710 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
6711 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
6712 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
6713 isn't a random state.
6715 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
6716 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
6718 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
6719 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
6720 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
6721 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
6723 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6724 Return 32 random bits.
6726 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6727 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
6729 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6730 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
6732 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6733 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
6735 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
6736 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6738 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
6739 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6740 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
6744 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
6746 * Changes to the distribution
6748 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
6749 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
6750 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
6753 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
6754 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
6755 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
6757 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
6758 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
6759 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
6760 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
6763 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
6764 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
6765 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
6767 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6769 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
6771 *** Function: batch-mode?
6773 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
6776 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
6778 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
6779 case has not been implemented.
6781 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
6782 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
6783 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
6786 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
6787 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
6789 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
6791 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6793 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
6795 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
6796 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
6799 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
6800 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
6801 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
6802 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
6805 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
6807 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
6808 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
6809 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
6810 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
6811 find those libraries.
6813 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
6814 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
6817 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
6819 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
6820 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
6821 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
6822 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
6824 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
6825 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
6826 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
6830 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
6832 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
6833 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
6834 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
6837 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
6838 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
6839 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
6840 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
6842 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
6843 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
6846 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
6847 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
6848 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
6849 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
6850 compiler where to find the libraries.
6852 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
6853 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
6854 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
6856 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
6857 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
6858 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
6859 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
6860 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
6864 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6866 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
6867 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
6868 internationalization support.
6870 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
6871 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
6872 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
6873 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
6874 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
6876 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
6877 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
6878 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
6879 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
6880 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
6882 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
6883 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
6884 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
6885 any GNU mirror site.
6887 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
6889 ** New function: add-history STRING
6890 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
6891 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
6892 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
6894 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
6896 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
6897 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
6898 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
6901 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
6902 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
6903 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
6905 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
6907 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
6910 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
6911 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
6914 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
6915 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
6916 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
6917 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
6918 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
6919 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
6921 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
6922 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
6923 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
6924 of the form mentioned above.
6926 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
6927 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
6928 returned in the special `rest' list.
6930 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
6931 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
6933 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
6935 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
6937 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
6939 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
6940 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
6941 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
6942 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
6943 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
6944 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
6945 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
6946 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
6949 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
6951 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
6953 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
6954 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
6957 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
6958 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
6959 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
6963 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
6964 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
6965 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
6966 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
6967 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
6968 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
6969 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
6970 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
6973 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
6975 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
6976 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
6977 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
6979 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
6981 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
6982 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
6984 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
6985 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
6986 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
6988 Why do we have this function?
6989 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
6990 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
6991 primitive, and display it differently, and
6992 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
6993 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
6996 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
6997 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
7000 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
7001 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
7002 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
7003 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
7005 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
7006 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
7009 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
7010 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
7012 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
7014 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
7015 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
7016 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
7017 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
7018 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
7019 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
7020 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
7023 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
7025 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
7026 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
7028 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
7029 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
7030 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
7031 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
7032 properly continue the print chain.
7034 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
7035 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
7036 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
7037 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
7038 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
7039 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
7040 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
7041 print-state, it is simply ignored.
7043 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
7044 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
7045 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
7046 safest to not check for these pairs.
7048 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
7049 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
7050 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
7051 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
7053 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
7055 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
7056 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
7058 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
7060 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
7062 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
7063 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
7064 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
7066 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
7067 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
7068 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
7070 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
7071 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
7072 the following functions and macros:
7074 Function: make-fluid
7076 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
7077 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
7078 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
7079 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
7080 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
7082 Function: fluid? OBJ
7084 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
7086 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
7087 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
7089 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
7090 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
7092 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
7094 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
7095 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
7096 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
7097 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
7098 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
7099 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
7100 modified by `with-fluids*'.
7102 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
7104 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
7105 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
7106 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
7107 should evaluate to a fluid.
7109 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
7111 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
7112 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
7113 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
7114 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
7115 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
7117 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
7120 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
7122 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
7124 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
7126 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
7129 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
7130 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
7131 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
7132 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
7133 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
7136 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
7137 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
7138 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
7140 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
7141 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
7142 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
7144 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
7145 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
7146 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7147 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
7149 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
7150 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
7151 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7152 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
7154 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
7155 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
7156 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
7157 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
7159 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
7160 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
7161 their revealed counts set to zero.
7163 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7164 Returns an integer file descriptor.
7166 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7167 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
7169 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7170 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
7172 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7173 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
7174 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
7176 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
7177 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
7178 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
7180 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
7181 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
7182 default environment inherited by child processes.
7184 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
7185 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
7186 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
7188 The return value is unspecified.
7190 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
7191 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
7192 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
7193 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
7194 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
7196 The return value is unspecified.
7198 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
7199 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
7207 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
7208 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
7211 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
7214 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
7215 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
7216 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
7218 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
7219 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
7220 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
7221 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
7224 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
7225 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
7227 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
7228 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
7229 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
7230 the `environ' procedure.
7232 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
7233 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
7236 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
7237 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
7239 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
7240 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
7241 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
7242 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
7244 *** procedure: times
7245 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
7246 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
7247 return a selected component:
7250 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
7254 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
7257 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
7261 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
7262 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
7266 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
7267 terminated child processes.
7269 ** Removed: list-length
7270 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
7271 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
7273 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
7275 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
7277 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
7279 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
7280 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
7281 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
7282 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
7284 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
7285 extra complexity it introduces.
7287 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
7288 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
7290 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
7291 variable to any non-empty value.
7293 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
7294 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
7296 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7298 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
7299 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
7301 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
7303 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
7304 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
7306 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
7308 ** vector handling routines
7310 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
7311 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
7312 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
7313 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
7314 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
7316 ** pair and list routines
7318 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
7321 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
7323 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
7326 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7328 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
7330 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
7331 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
7332 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
7333 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
7334 site-specific initialization code.
7336 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
7337 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
7338 initialization processes.
7340 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
7341 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
7342 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
7343 initialized properly.
7345 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
7346 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
7347 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
7349 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
7350 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
7351 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
7352 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
7353 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
7355 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
7357 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
7358 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
7359 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
7360 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
7361 objects the smob refers to get marked.
7363 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
7364 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
7365 which look like this:
7368 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
7370 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
7371 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
7374 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
7375 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
7378 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
7380 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
7381 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
7382 you will need to change your functions slightly.
7384 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
7385 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
7386 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
7387 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
7388 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
7390 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
7391 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
7393 int (*free) (SCM port);
7394 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
7395 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
7396 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
7400 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
7401 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
7402 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
7404 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
7407 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
7408 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
7409 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
7411 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
7412 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
7413 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
7416 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
7420 struct timeval *timeout);
7422 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
7423 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
7424 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
7425 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
7426 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
7427 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
7429 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
7430 scm_catch_body_t body,
7432 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7435 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
7436 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
7437 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
7438 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
7439 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
7440 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
7442 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
7444 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7447 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
7448 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
7449 spawning threads from application C code.
7451 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
7452 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
7453 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
7454 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
7455 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
7456 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
7458 ** Removed functions:
7460 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
7461 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
7463 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
7465 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
7466 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
7468 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
7470 ** mbstrings are now removed
7472 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
7473 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
7475 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
7477 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
7478 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
7479 their new names and arguments:
7481 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
7482 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
7483 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
7484 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
7487 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
7489 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
7491 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
7494 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
7496 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
7497 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
7498 pass a #f arg to catch.
7500 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
7502 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
7503 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
7506 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
7507 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
7508 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
7509 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
7510 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
7511 reclaim its storage.
7513 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
7514 worrying that some other function you call will call
7515 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
7516 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
7517 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
7518 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
7521 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
7523 * Changes to the distribution
7525 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
7526 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
7529 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
7530 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
7532 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7533 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7535 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
7537 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
7538 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
7539 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
7541 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7543 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
7544 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
7545 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
7546 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
7547 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
7548 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
7550 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
7551 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
7552 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
7555 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
7556 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
7557 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
7558 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
7560 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
7561 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
7562 libraries to your link command:
7564 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
7565 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
7566 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7567 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7569 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
7570 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
7571 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
7573 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7575 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
7576 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
7579 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
7581 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
7582 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
7583 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
7584 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
7585 searched is system dependent.
7587 (dynamic-object? VAL)
7589 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
7591 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
7593 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
7594 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
7596 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7598 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
7599 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
7600 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
7601 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
7602 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
7605 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7607 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
7608 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
7609 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
7610 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
7611 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
7613 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
7615 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
7616 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
7618 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
7620 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
7621 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
7622 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
7625 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
7627 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
7628 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
7629 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
7630 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
7632 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
7633 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
7635 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
7637 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
7638 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
7640 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
7642 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
7643 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
7651 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
7653 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
7654 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
7655 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
7656 a more informative way.
7658 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
7659 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
7660 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
7661 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
7662 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
7663 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
7665 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
7666 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
7669 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
7670 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
7671 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
7674 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
7675 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
7676 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
7677 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
7678 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
7679 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
7681 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
7682 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
7683 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
7684 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
7687 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
7688 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
7689 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
7690 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
7691 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
7692 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
7694 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
7695 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
7696 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
7697 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
7698 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
7700 *** regexp functions
7702 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
7703 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
7704 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
7706 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
7707 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
7708 with SCSH regular expressions.
7710 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
7711 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
7712 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
7713 position of STR at which to begin matching.
7715 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
7716 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
7717 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
7718 `string-match' returns `#f'.
7720 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
7721 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
7722 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
7723 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
7724 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
7725 match strings against the compiled regexp.
7727 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
7728 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
7729 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
7730 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
7731 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
7733 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7735 **** Constant: regexp/extended
7736 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
7737 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
7738 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
7740 **** Constant: regexp/icase
7741 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
7742 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
7744 **** Constant: regexp/newline
7745 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
7747 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
7750 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
7751 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7752 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
7754 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
7755 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7756 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
7758 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
7759 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
7760 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
7761 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
7762 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
7765 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7767 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
7768 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
7769 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
7770 used when different portions of a string are passed to
7771 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
7772 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
7774 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
7775 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
7776 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
7778 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
7779 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
7782 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
7783 and replace them with the contents of another string.
7785 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
7786 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
7787 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
7788 may be one of the following arguments:
7790 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
7792 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
7794 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
7795 the regexp match is written.
7797 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
7798 following the regexp match is written.
7800 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
7801 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
7804 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
7805 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
7806 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
7807 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
7808 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
7809 which should be matched against this regular expression.
7811 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
7814 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
7815 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
7816 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
7817 written out to PORT.
7819 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
7820 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
7821 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
7822 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
7823 will return after processing a single match.
7825 *** Match Structures
7827 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
7828 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
7829 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
7830 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
7831 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
7832 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
7835 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
7836 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
7837 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
7838 information about the original target string that was matched against a
7839 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
7841 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
7842 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
7843 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
7845 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
7846 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
7847 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
7848 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
7849 number N did not match, return `#f'.
7851 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
7852 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
7854 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
7855 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
7857 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
7858 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
7860 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
7861 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
7863 **** Function: match:count MATCH
7864 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
7865 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
7866 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
7868 **** Function: match:string MATCH
7869 Return the original TARGET string.
7871 *** Backslash Escapes
7873 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
7874 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
7875 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
7876 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
7877 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
7878 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
7880 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
7881 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
7882 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
7883 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
7884 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
7885 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
7886 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
7887 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
7889 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
7890 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
7891 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
7892 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
7893 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
7894 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
7895 each match a single backslash in the target string.
7897 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
7898 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
7899 return the resulting string.
7901 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
7902 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
7903 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
7904 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
7905 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
7906 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
7907 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
7908 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
7909 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
7910 translated to the single character `*'.
7912 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
7913 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
7914 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
7915 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
7916 consecutive backslashes:
7918 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
7920 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
7921 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
7922 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
7924 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
7925 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
7926 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
7927 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
7928 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
7929 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
7931 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
7933 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
7934 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
7935 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
7936 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
7937 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
7938 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
7939 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
7940 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
7941 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
7942 cumbersome escape syntax.
7944 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7946 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7948 * Changes to system call interfaces:
7950 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
7953 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
7955 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
7957 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
7960 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
7961 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
7962 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
7963 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
7964 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
7966 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
7967 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
7968 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
7969 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
7970 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
7971 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
7972 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
7975 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
7976 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
7977 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
7980 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
7981 `force-output' on every port open for output.
7983 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
7984 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
7985 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
7986 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
7987 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
7988 installed, you can say:
7990 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
7993 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7995 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
7996 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
7997 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
7998 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
7999 new dynamic roots and threads.
8002 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
8004 * Changes to the distribution.
8006 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
8008 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
8009 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
8010 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
8011 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
8012 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
8013 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
8014 programming language. These are packaged together because the
8015 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
8017 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
8020 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
8021 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
8026 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
8028 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
8029 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
8031 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
8032 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
8033 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
8034 the (command-line) function.
8035 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
8036 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
8037 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
8039 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
8040 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
8041 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
8042 command line arguments
8043 -ds do -s script at this point
8044 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
8045 -h, --help display this help and exit
8046 -v, --version display version information and exit
8047 \ read arguments from following script lines
8049 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
8050 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
8052 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8055 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8059 (main (command-line))
8061 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
8063 ekko a speckled gecko
8065 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
8066 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
8067 following list of command-line arguments:
8069 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
8071 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
8072 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
8073 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
8074 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
8075 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8077 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
8079 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
8081 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
8082 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
8085 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
8086 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
8087 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
8088 SCSH) for circumventing them.
8090 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
8091 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
8092 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
8093 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
8095 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
8099 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8103 If the user invokes this script as follows:
8105 ekko a speckled gecko
8107 Unix expands this into
8109 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
8111 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
8112 read from the second line of the script, producing:
8114 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8116 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
8117 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8119 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
8120 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
8121 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
8122 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
8123 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
8124 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
8125 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
8126 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
8127 it only terminates the argument list.)
8128 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
8129 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
8130 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
8131 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
8132 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
8133 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
8134 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
8135 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
8137 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
8139 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
8140 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
8141 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
8142 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
8143 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
8145 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
8146 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
8147 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
8149 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
8151 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
8152 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
8153 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
8154 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
8157 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
8158 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
8159 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
8161 * Changes to Scheme functions
8163 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
8164 and disabled by default.
8166 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
8167 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
8168 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
8169 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
8171 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
8173 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
8175 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
8176 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
8178 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
8179 (read-set! keywords #f)
8181 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
8182 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
8183 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
8186 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
8187 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
8188 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
8191 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
8192 support for Scheme functions.
8194 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8195 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
8196 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
8197 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
8200 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8201 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
8202 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
8205 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
8206 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
8207 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
8210 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
8211 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
8212 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
8213 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
8214 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
8215 display the result as a prompt.
8216 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
8218 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
8219 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
8220 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
8223 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
8224 procedure of zero arguments.
8226 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
8227 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
8228 argument is bound in the current module.
8230 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
8231 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
8232 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
8233 public bindings into the current module.
8235 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
8236 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
8238 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
8239 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
8241 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
8242 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
8244 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
8245 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
8247 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
8248 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
8250 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
8251 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
8252 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
8253 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
8254 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
8256 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
8257 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
8258 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
8259 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
8261 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
8264 ** Changes to I/O functions
8266 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
8267 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
8268 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
8270 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
8271 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
8272 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
8274 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
8275 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
8277 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
8278 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
8279 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
8280 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
8282 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
8284 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
8285 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
8287 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
8288 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
8289 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
8290 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
8291 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
8294 'trim omit delimiter from result
8295 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
8296 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
8297 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
8299 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
8301 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
8302 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
8304 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
8305 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
8306 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
8307 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
8308 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
8310 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
8311 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
8312 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
8314 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
8315 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
8316 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
8317 above, and defaults to 'peek.
8319 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
8320 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8322 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
8323 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
8325 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
8327 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
8328 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
8329 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
8330 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
8331 a delimiting character.
8332 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
8334 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
8335 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
8336 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
8337 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
8338 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
8339 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
8341 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
8342 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8344 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
8345 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
8346 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
8348 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
8349 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
8350 the array to read and write.
8352 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
8353 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
8356 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
8358 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
8361 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
8362 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
8363 Values for COMMAND are:
8365 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
8366 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
8367 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
8368 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
8369 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
8370 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
8371 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
8372 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
8374 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
8376 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
8377 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
8378 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
8379 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
8380 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
8381 corresponding return set will be the same.
8383 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
8386 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
8387 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
8388 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
8389 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
8390 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
8391 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
8392 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
8393 special file being created.
8395 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
8396 clashing with various SCSH forks.
8398 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
8399 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
8400 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
8401 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
8402 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
8403 and originating address.
8405 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
8406 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
8407 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
8409 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
8412 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
8413 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
8416 (status:exit-val STATUS)
8417 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
8418 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
8419 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
8420 this function returns #f.
8422 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
8423 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
8424 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
8427 (status:term-sig STATUS)
8428 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
8429 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
8432 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
8433 a valid STATUS value.
8435 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
8437 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
8438 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
8440 Component Accessor Setter
8441 ========================= ============ ============
8442 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
8443 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
8444 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
8445 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
8446 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
8447 year tm:year set-tm:year
8448 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
8449 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
8450 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
8451 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
8452 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
8454 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
8455 describing the host system:
8458 ============================================== ================
8459 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
8460 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
8461 release level of the operating system utsname:release
8462 version level of the operating system utsname:version
8463 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
8465 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
8466 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
8467 system's user database:
8470 ====================== =================
8471 user name passwd:name
8472 user password passwd:passwd
8475 real name passwd:gecos
8476 home directory passwd:dir
8477 shell program passwd:shell
8479 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
8480 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
8481 system's group database:
8484 ======================= ============
8485 group name group:name
8486 group password group:passwd
8488 group members group:mem
8490 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
8491 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
8495 ========================= ===============
8496 official name of host hostent:name
8497 alias list hostent:aliases
8498 host address type hostent:addrtype
8499 length of address hostent:length
8500 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
8502 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
8503 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
8507 ========================= ===============
8508 official name of net netent:name
8509 alias list netent:aliases
8510 net number type netent:addrtype
8511 net number netent:net
8513 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
8514 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
8518 ========================= ===============
8519 official protocol name protoent:name
8520 alias list protoent:aliases
8521 protocol number protoent:proto
8523 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
8524 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
8528 ========================= ===============
8529 official service name servent:name
8530 alias list servent:aliases
8531 port number servent:port
8532 protocol to use servent:proto
8534 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
8535 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
8538 ======================================== ===============
8539 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
8540 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
8541 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
8542 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
8544 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
8545 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
8546 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
8548 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
8549 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
8551 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
8552 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
8554 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
8555 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
8557 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
8559 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
8561 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
8562 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
8563 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
8565 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
8566 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
8567 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
8568 return the remaining characters as a string.
8570 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
8571 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
8572 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
8574 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
8576 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8578 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
8581 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
8584 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
8585 and returns the array
8587 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
8588 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
8589 the user to interpret the data both ways.
8591 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8593 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
8594 symbol's value from C code:
8596 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
8597 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
8598 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
8599 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
8601 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
8602 without assigning them a value.
8604 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
8605 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
8606 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
8608 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
8609 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
8610 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
8612 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
8613 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
8615 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
8616 doesn't actually care about that.
8618 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
8619 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
8620 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
8622 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
8623 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
8624 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
8625 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
8626 which we have just created and initialized.
8628 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
8629 should one occur. We call it like this:
8630 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
8632 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
8633 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
8634 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
8635 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
8636 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
8637 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
8640 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
8641 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
8642 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
8643 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
8644 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
8645 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
8646 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
8649 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
8650 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
8651 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
8652 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
8653 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
8656 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
8657 scm_internal_catch, except:
8659 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
8660 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
8661 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
8662 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
8665 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
8666 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
8667 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
8669 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
8670 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
8671 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
8672 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
8675 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
8676 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
8677 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
8679 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
8680 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
8681 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
8682 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
8683 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
8685 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
8686 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
8687 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
8689 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
8690 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
8691 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
8693 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
8694 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
8696 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
8697 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
8698 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
8701 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
8702 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
8703 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
8704 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
8705 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
8706 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
8707 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
8710 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
8711 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
8713 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
8714 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
8715 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
8716 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
8717 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
8720 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
8721 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
8723 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
8724 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
8727 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
8728 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
8730 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8733 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
8734 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
8735 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
8736 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
8737 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
8738 given the following arguments:
8740 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8742 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
8744 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
8746 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8749 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
8750 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
8751 command-line arguments.
8753 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
8754 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
8755 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
8756 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
8757 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
8758 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
8761 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8764 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
8765 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
8767 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
8768 rearranged slightly. They are now:
8770 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8771 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8772 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
8773 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
8775 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8776 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8778 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8779 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
8780 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8781 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
8783 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8784 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8786 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
8787 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
8789 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
8791 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
8792 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
8793 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
8796 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
8797 returns a port instead of an FD object.
8799 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
8800 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
8805 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
8808 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
8810 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
8811 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
8812 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
8813 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
8815 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
8817 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
8819 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
8820 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
8821 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
8822 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
8823 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
8824 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
8825 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
8826 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
8827 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
8828 for more information.
8830 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
8831 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
8833 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
8834 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
8835 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
8836 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
8837 following two lines at the top of the file:
8839 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8842 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
8843 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
8844 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
8846 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
8848 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8850 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
8853 (display (car args))
8854 (if (pair? (cdr args))
8856 (loop (cdr args)))))
8859 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
8860 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
8861 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
8862 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
8863 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
8864 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
8868 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
8871 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
8874 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
8876 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
8877 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
8878 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
8879 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
8880 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
8883 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
8884 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
8885 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
8886 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
8887 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
8890 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
8893 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
8894 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
8895 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
8898 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
8899 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
8900 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
8902 to see a backtrace, and
8903 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
8904 to see them by default.
8908 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
8910 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
8912 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
8913 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
8916 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
8917 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
8918 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
8919 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
8922 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
8923 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
8924 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
8925 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
8926 functions which inspired them.
8928 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
8929 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
8933 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
8935 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
8937 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
8938 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
8941 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
8942 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
8943 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
8945 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
8946 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
8947 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
8948 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
8949 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
8951 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
8953 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
8954 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
8955 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
8958 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
8961 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
8963 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
8964 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
8965 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
8966 above should serve their purposes.
8968 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
8969 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
8970 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
8971 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
8973 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
8976 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
8977 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
8978 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
8979 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
8981 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
8982 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
8983 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
8984 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
8986 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
8987 for the `read' function.
8990 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
8991 to that of `integer?'.
8993 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
8994 use the R4RS names for these functions.
8996 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
8997 it simply returns the object's property list.
8999 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
9000 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
9001 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
9002 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
9004 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
9006 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
9009 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
9011 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
9012 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
9014 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
9016 void (*main_func) (),
9019 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
9020 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
9021 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
9022 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
9023 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
9025 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
9026 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
9027 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
9028 know which arguments have been processed.
9030 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
9031 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
9032 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
9033 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
9034 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
9036 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
9037 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
9038 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
9039 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
9040 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
9041 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
9042 people from making that mistake.
9044 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
9045 convenient ways to override these when desired.
9047 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
9049 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
9053 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
9056 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
9057 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
9058 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
9059 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
9062 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
9063 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
9064 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
9065 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
9068 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
9069 have been added to the Guile library.
9071 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
9072 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
9073 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
9076 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
9077 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
9078 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
9080 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
9081 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
9082 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
9083 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
9084 argument from the list.
9087 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
9090 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
9091 null-terminated string, and returns it.
9093 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
9094 to a Scheme port object.
9096 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
9097 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
9102 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
9104 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
9105 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
9106 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
9107 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
9108 code as a special datatype.
9110 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
9111 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
9112 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
9113 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
9114 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
9117 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
9118 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
9119 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
9120 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
9121 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
9123 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
9126 Copyright information:
9128 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
9130 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
9131 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
9132 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
9133 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
9135 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
9136 of this document, or of portions of it,
9137 under the above conditions, provided also that they
9138 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
9143 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"