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 FIXME: Need to document IP_MULTICAST_TTL and IP_MULTICAST_IF in the
81 ** Deprecate `cuserid'
83 `cuserid' has been deprecated, as it only returns 8 bytes of a user's
84 login. Use `(passwd:name (getpwuid (geteuid)))' instead.
86 ** New procedure. `reload-module'
88 Needs documenting and a REPL meta-command.
90 ** Allow user-defined REPL meta-commands
92 See FIXME in the manual, for more information.
94 ** Add support for unbound fluids
96 FIXME: needs documentation
98 See `make-undefined-fluid' (FIXME: should be make-unbound-fluid),
99 `fluid-unset!', and `fluid-bound?' in the manual.
101 ** Add variable-unset!
105 ** Command line additions
107 The guile binary now supports a new switch "-x", which can be used to
108 extend the list of filename extensions tried when loading files
111 ** And of course, the usual collection of bugfixes
113 Interested users should see the ChangeLog for more information.
117 Changes in 1.9.x (since the 1.8.x series):
119 * New modules (see the manual for details)
121 ** `(srfi srfi-18)', more sophisticated multithreading support
122 ** `(srfi srfi-27)', sources of random bits
123 ** `(srfi srfi-42)', eager comprehensions
124 ** `(srfi srfi-45)', primitives for expressing iterative lazy algorithms
125 ** `(srfi srfi-67)', compare procedures
126 ** `(ice-9 i18n)', internationalization support
127 ** `(rnrs bytevectors)', the R6RS bytevector API
128 ** `(rnrs io ports)', a subset of the R6RS I/O port API
129 ** `(system xref)', a cross-referencing facility (FIXME undocumented)
130 ** `(ice-9 vlist)', lists with constant-time random access; hash lists
131 ** `(system foreign)', foreign function interface
132 ** `(sxml match)', a pattern matcher for SXML
133 ** `(srfi srfi-9 gnu)', extensions to the SRFI-9 record library
134 ** `(system vm coverage)', a line-by-line code coverage library
136 ** Replaced `(ice-9 match)' with Alex Shinn's compatible, hygienic matcher.
138 Guile's copy of Andrew K. Wright's `match' library has been replaced by
139 a compatible hygienic implementation by Alex Shinn. It is now
140 documented, see "Pattern Matching" in the manual.
142 Compared to Andrew K. Wright's `match', the new `match' lacks
143 `match-define', `match:error-control', `match:set-error-control',
144 `match:error', `match:set-error', and all structure-related procedures.
146 ** Imported statprof, SSAX, and texinfo modules from Guile-Lib
148 The statprof statistical profiler, the SSAX XML toolkit, and the texinfo
149 toolkit from Guile-Lib have been imported into Guile proper. See
150 "Standard Library" in the manual for more details.
152 ** Integration of lalr-scm, a parser generator
154 Guile has included Dominique Boucher's fine `lalr-scm' parser generator
155 as `(system base lalr)'. See "LALR(1) Parsing" in the manual, for more
158 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
160 ** Guile now can compile Scheme to bytecode for a custom virtual machine.
162 Compiled code loads much faster than Scheme source code, and runs around
163 3 or 4 times as fast, generating much less garbage in the process.
165 ** Evaluating Scheme code does not use the C stack.
167 Besides when compiling Guile itself, Guile no longer uses a recursive C
168 function as an evaluator. This obviates the need to check the C stack
169 pointer for overflow. Continuations still capture the C stack, however.
171 ** New environment variables: GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH,
172 GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH
174 GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is for compiled files what GUILE_LOAD_PATH is
175 for source files. It is a different path, however, because compiled
176 files are architecture-specific. GUILE_SYSTEM_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH is like
179 ** New read-eval-print loop (REPL) implementation
181 Running Guile with no arguments drops the user into the new REPL. See
182 "Using Guile Interactively" in the manual, for more information.
184 ** Remove old Emacs interface
186 Guile had an unused `--emacs' command line argument that was supposed to
187 help when running Guile inside Emacs. This option has been removed, and
188 the helper functions `named-module-use!' and `load-emacs-interface' have
191 ** Add `(system repl server)' module and `--listen' command-line argument
193 The `(system repl server)' module exposes procedures to listen on
194 sockets for connections, and serve REPLs to those clients. The --listen
195 command-line argument allows any Guile program to thus be remotely
198 See "Invoking Guile" for more information on `--listen'.
200 ** New reader options: `square-brackets' and `r6rs-hex-escapes'
202 The reader supports a new option (changeable via `read-options'),
203 `square-brackets', which instructs it to interpret square brackets as
204 parentheses. This option is on by default.
206 When the new `r6rs-hex-escapes' reader option is enabled, the reader
207 will recognize string escape sequences as defined in R6RS. R6RS string
208 escape sequences are incompatible with Guile's existing escapes, though,
209 so this option is off by default.
211 ** Function profiling and tracing at the REPL
213 The `,profile FORM' REPL meta-command can now be used to statistically
214 profile execution of a form, to see which functions are taking the most
215 time. See `,help profile' for more information.
217 Similarly, `,trace FORM' traces all function applications that occur
218 during the execution of `FORM'. See `,help trace' for more information.
220 ** Recursive debugging REPL on error
222 When Guile sees an error at the REPL, instead of saving the stack, Guile
223 will directly enter a recursive REPL in the dynamic context of the
224 error. See "Error Handling" in the manual, for more information.
226 A recursive REPL is the same as any other REPL, except that it
227 has been augmented with debugging information, so that one can inspect
228 the context of the error. The debugger has been integrated with the REPL
229 via a set of debugging meta-commands.
231 For example, one may access a backtrace with `,backtrace' (or
232 `,bt'). See "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for more
235 ** New `guile-tools' commands: `compile', `disassemble'
237 Pass the `--help' command-line option to these commands for more
240 ** Guile now adds its install prefix to the LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
242 Users may now install Guile to nonstandard prefixes and just run
243 `/path/to/bin/guile', instead of also having to set LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH to
244 include `/path/to/lib'.
246 ** Guile's Emacs integration is now more keyboard-friendly
248 Backtraces may now be disclosed with the keyboard in addition to the
251 ** Load path change: search in version-specific paths before site paths
253 When looking for a module, Guile now searches first in Guile's
254 version-specific path (the library path), *then* in the site dir. This
255 allows Guile's copy of SSAX to override any Guile-Lib copy the user has
256 installed. Also it should cut the number of `stat' system calls by half,
259 ** Value history in the REPL on by default
261 By default, the REPL will save computed values in variables like `$1',
262 `$2', and the like. There are programmatic and interactive interfaces to
263 control this. See "Value History" in the manual, for more information.
265 ** Readline tab completion for arguments
267 When readline is enabled, tab completion works for arguments too, not
268 just for the operator position.
270 ** Interactive Guile follows GNU conventions
272 As recommended by the GPL, Guile now shows a brief copyright and
273 warranty disclaimer on startup, along with pointers to more information.
275 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
277 ** Support for R6RS libraries
279 The `library' and `import' forms from the latest Scheme report have been
280 added to Guile, in such a way that R6RS libraries share a namespace with
281 Guile modules. R6RS modules may import Guile modules, and are available
282 for Guile modules to import via use-modules and all the rest. See "R6RS
283 Libraries" in the manual for more information.
285 ** Implementations of R6RS libraries
287 Guile now has implementations for all of the libraries defined in the
288 R6RS. Thanks to Julian Graham for this excellent hack. See "R6RS
289 Standard Libraries" in the manual for a full list of libraries.
291 ** Partial R6RS compatibility
293 Guile now has enough support for R6RS to run a reasonably large subset
296 Guile is not fully R6RS compatible. Many incompatibilities are simply
297 bugs, though some parts of Guile will remain R6RS-incompatible for the
298 foreseeable future. See "R6RS Incompatibilities" in the manual, for more
301 Please contact bug-guile@gnu.org if you have found an issue not
302 mentioned in that compatibility list.
304 ** New implementation of `primitive-eval'
306 Guile's `primitive-eval' is now implemented in Scheme. Actually there is
307 still a C evaluator, used when building a fresh Guile to interpret the
308 compiler, so we can compile eval.scm. Thereafter all calls to
309 primitive-eval are implemented by VM-compiled code.
311 This allows all of Guile's procedures, be they interpreted or compiled,
312 to execute on the same stack, unifying multiple-value return semantics,
313 providing for proper tail recursion between interpreted and compiled
314 code, and simplifying debugging.
316 As part of this change, the evaluator no longer mutates the internal
317 representation of the code being evaluated in a thread-unsafe manner.
319 There are two negative aspects of this change, however. First, Guile
320 takes a lot longer to compile now. Also, there is less debugging
321 information available for debugging interpreted code. We hope to improve
322 both of these situations.
324 There are many changes to the internal C evalator interface, but all
325 public interfaces should be the same. See the ChangeLog for details. If
326 we have inadvertantly changed an interface that you were using, please
327 contact bug-guile@gnu.org.
329 ** Procedure removed: `the-environment'
331 This procedure was part of the interpreter's execution model, and does
332 not apply to the compiler.
334 ** No more `local-eval'
336 `local-eval' used to exist so that one could evaluate code in the
337 lexical context of a function. Since there is no way to get the lexical
338 environment any more, as that concept has no meaning for the compiler,
339 and a different meaning for the interpreter, we have removed the
342 If you think you need `local-eval', you should probably implement your
343 own metacircular evaluator. It will probably be as fast as Guile's
346 ** Scheme source files will now be compiled automatically.
348 If a compiled .go file corresponding to a .scm file is not found or is
349 not fresh, the .scm file will be compiled on the fly, and the resulting
350 .go file stored away. An advisory note will be printed on the console.
352 Note that this mechanism depends on the timestamp of the .go file being
353 newer than that of the .scm file; if the .scm or .go files are moved
354 after installation, care should be taken to preserve their original
357 Autocompiled files will be stored in the $XDG_CACHE_HOME/guile/ccache
358 directory, where $XDG_CACHE_HOME defaults to ~/.cache. This directory
359 will be created if needed.
361 To inhibit autocompilation, set the GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE environment
362 variable to 0, or pass --no-autocompile on the Guile command line.
364 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
366 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
367 in the next prerelease.
369 ** New POSIX procedure: `getsid'
371 Scheme binding for the `getsid' C library call.
373 ** New POSIX procedure: `getaddrinfo'
375 Scheme binding for the `getaddrinfo' C library function.
377 ** New procedure in `(oops goops)': `method-formals'
379 ** New procedures in (ice-9 session): `add-value-help-handler!',
380 `remove-value-help-handler!', `add-name-help-handler!'
381 `remove-name-help-handler!', `procedure-arguments'
383 The value and name help handlers provide some minimal extensibility to
384 the help interface. Guile-lib's `(texinfo reflection)' uses them, for
385 example, to make stexinfo help documentation available. See those
386 procedures' docstrings for more information.
388 `procedure-arguments' describes the arguments that a procedure can take,
389 combining arity and formals. For example:
391 (procedure-arguments resolve-interface)
392 => ((required . (name)) (rest . args))
394 Additionally, `module-commentary' is now publically exported from
397 ** Removed: `procedure->memoizing-macro', `procedure->syntax'
399 These procedures created primitive fexprs for the old evaluator, and are
400 no longer supported. If you feel that you need these functions, you
401 probably need to write your own metacircular evaluator (which will
402 probably be as fast as Guile's, anyway).
404 ** New language: ECMAScript
406 Guile now ships with one other high-level language supported,
407 ECMAScript. The goal is to support all of version 3.1 of the standard,
408 but not all of the libraries are there yet. This support is not yet
409 documented; ask on the mailing list if you are interested.
411 ** New language: Brainfuck
413 Brainfuck is a toy language that closely models Turing machines. Guile's
414 brainfuck compiler is meant to be an example of implementing other
415 languages. See the manual for details, or
416 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck for more information about the
417 Brainfuck language itself.
419 ** New language: Elisp
421 Guile now has an experimental Emacs Lisp compiler and runtime. You can
422 now switch to Elisp at the repl: `,language elisp'. All kudos to Daniel
423 Kraft, and all bugs to bug-guile@gnu.org.
425 ** Better documentation infrastructure for macros
427 It is now possible to introspect on the type of a macro, e.g.
428 syntax-rules, identifier-syntax, etc, and extract information about that
429 macro, such as the syntax-rules patterns or the defmacro arguments.
430 `(texinfo reflection)' takes advantage of this to give better macro
433 ** Support for arbitrary procedure metadata
435 Building on its support for docstrings, Guile now supports multiple
436 docstrings, adding them to the tail of a compiled procedure's
437 properties. For example:
443 (procedure-properties foo)
444 => ((name . foo) (documentation . "one") (documentation . "two"))
446 Also, vectors of pairs are now treated as additional metadata entries:
449 #((quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
451 (procedure-properties bar)
452 => ((name . bar) (quz . #f) (docstring . "xyzzy"))
454 This allows arbitrary literals to be embedded as metadata in a compiled
457 ** The psyntax expander now knows how to interpret the @ and @@ special
460 ** The psyntax expander is now hygienic with respect to modules.
462 Free variables in a macro are scoped in the module that the macro was
463 defined in, not in the module the macro is used in. For example, code
466 (define-module (foo) #:export (bar))
467 (define (helper x) ...)
469 (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (helper x))))
471 (define-module (baz) #:use-module (foo))
474 It used to be you had to export `helper' from `(foo)' as well.
475 Thankfully, this has been fixed.
477 ** Support for version information in Guile's `module' form
479 Guile modules now have a `#:version' field. See "R6RS Version
480 References", "General Information about Modules", "Using Guile Modules",
481 and "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual for more information.
483 ** Support for renaming bindings on module export
485 Wherever Guile accepts a symbol as an argument to specify a binding to
486 export, it now also accepts a pair of symbols, indicating that a binding
487 should be renamed on export. See "Creating Guile Modules" in the manual
488 for more information.
490 ** New procedure: `module-export-all!'
492 This procedure exports all current and future bindings from a module.
493 Use as `(module-export-all! (current-module))'.
495 ** `eval-case' has been deprecated, and replaced by `eval-when'.
497 The semantics of `eval-when' are easier to understand. See "Eval When"
498 in the manual, for more information.
500 ** Guile is now more strict about prohibiting definitions in expression
503 Although previous versions of Guile accepted it, the following
504 expression is not valid, in R5RS or R6RS:
506 (if test (define foo 'bar) (define foo 'baz))
508 In this specific case, it would be better to do:
510 (define foo (if test 'bar 'baz))
512 It is certainly possible to circumvent this resriction with e.g.
513 `(module-define! (current-module) 'foo 'baz)'. We would appreciate
514 feedback about this change (a consequence of using psyntax as the
515 default expander), and may choose to revisit this situation before 2.0
516 in response to user feedback.
518 ** Support for `letrec*'
520 Guile now supports `letrec*', a recursive lexical binding operator in
521 which the identifiers are bound in order. See "Local Bindings" in the
522 manual, for more details.
524 ** Internal definitions now expand to `letrec*'
526 Following the R6RS, internal definitions now expand to letrec* instead
527 of letrec. The following program is invalid for R5RS, but valid for
532 (define baz (+ bar 20))
535 ;; R5RS and Guile <= 1.8:
536 (foo) => Unbound variable: bar
537 ;; R6RS and Guile >= 2.0:
540 This change should not affect correct R5RS programs, or programs written
541 in earlier Guile dialects.
543 ** Macro expansion produces structures instead of s-expressions
545 In the olden days, macroexpanding an s-expression would yield another
546 s-expression. Though the lexical variables were renamed, expansions of
547 core forms like `if' and `begin' were still non-hygienic, as they relied
548 on the toplevel definitions of `if' et al being the conventional ones.
550 The solution is to expand to structures instead of s-expressions. There
551 is an `if' structure, a `begin' structure, a `toplevel-ref' structure,
552 etc. The expander already did this for compilation, producing Tree-IL
553 directly; it has been changed now to do so when expanding for the
556 ** Defmacros must now produce valid Scheme expressions.
558 It used to be that defmacros could unquote in Scheme values, as a way of
559 supporting partial evaluation, and avoiding some hygiene issues. For
562 (define (helper x) ...)
563 (define-macro (foo bar)
566 Assuming this macro is in the `(baz)' module, the direct translation of
569 (define (helper x) ...)
570 (define-macro (foo bar)
571 `((@@ (baz) helper) ,bar))
573 Of course, one could just use a hygienic macro instead:
577 ((_ bar) (helper bar))))
579 ** Guile's psyntax now supports docstrings and internal definitions.
581 The following Scheme is not strictly legal:
588 However its intent is fairly clear. Guile interprets "bar" to be the
589 docstring of `foo', and the definition of `baz' is still in definition
592 ** Support for settable identifier syntax
594 Following the R6RS, "variable transformers" are settable
595 identifier-syntax. See "Identifier macros" in the manual, for more
598 ** syntax-case treats `_' as a placeholder
600 Following R6RS, a `_' in a syntax-rules or syntax-case pattern matches
601 anything, and binds no pattern variables. Unlike the R6RS, Guile also
602 permits `_' to be in the literals list for a pattern.
604 ** Macros need to be defined before their first use.
606 It used to be that with lazy memoization, this might work:
610 (define-macro (ref x) x)
613 But now, the body of `foo' is interpreted to mean a call to the toplevel
614 `ref' function, instead of a macro expansion. The solution is to define
615 macros before code that uses them.
617 ** Functions needed by macros at expand-time need to be present at
620 For example, this code will work at the REPL:
622 (define (double-helper x) (* x x))
623 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
624 (double-literal 2) => 4
626 But it will not work when a file is compiled, because the definition of
627 `double-helper' is not present at expand-time. The solution is to wrap
628 the definition of `double-helper' in `eval-when':
630 (eval-when (load compile eval)
631 (define (double-helper x) (* x x)))
632 (define-macro (double-literal x) (double-helper x))
633 (double-literal 2) => 4
635 See the documentation for eval-when for more information.
637 ** `macroexpand' produces structures, not S-expressions.
639 Given the need to maintain referential transparency, both lexically and
640 modular, the result of expanding Scheme expressions is no longer itself
641 an s-expression. If you want a human-readable approximation of the
642 result of `macroexpand', call `tree-il->scheme' from `(language
645 ** Removed function: `macroexpand-1'
647 It is unclear how to implement `macroexpand-1' with syntax-case, though
648 PLT Scheme does prove that it is possible.
650 ** New reader macros: #' #` #, #,@
652 These macros translate, respectively, to `syntax', `quasisyntax',
653 `unsyntax', and `unsyntax-splicing'. See the R6RS for more information.
654 These reader macros may be overridden by `read-hash-extend'.
656 ** Incompatible change to #'
658 Guile did have a #' hash-extension, by default, which just returned the
659 subsequent datum: #'foo => foo. In the unlikely event that anyone
660 actually used this, this behavior may be reinstated via the
661 `read-hash-extend' mechanism.
663 ** Scheme expresssions may be commented out with #;
665 #; comments out an entire expression. See SRFI-62 or the R6RS for more
668 ** Prompts: Delimited, composable continuations
670 Guile now has prompts as part of its primitive language. See "Prompts"
671 in the manual, for more information.
673 Expressions entered in at the REPL, or from the command line, are
674 surrounded by a prompt with the default prompt tag.
676 ** `make-stack' with a tail-called procedural narrowing argument no longer
677 works (with compiled procedures)
679 It used to be the case that a captured stack could be narrowed to select
680 calls only up to or from a certain procedure, even if that procedure
681 already tail-called another procedure. This was because the debug
682 information from the original procedure was kept on the stack.
684 Now with the new compiler, the stack only contains active frames from
685 the current continuation. A narrow to a procedure that is not in the
686 stack will result in an empty stack. To fix this, narrow to a procedure
687 that is active in the current continuation, or narrow to a specific
688 number of stack frames.
690 ** Backtraces through compiled procedures only show procedures that are
691 active in the current continuation
693 Similarly to the previous issue, backtraces in compiled code may be
694 different from backtraces in interpreted code. There are no semantic
695 differences, however. Please mail bug-guile@gnu.org if you see any
696 deficiencies with Guile's backtraces.
698 ** New macro: `current-source-location'
700 The macro returns the current source location (to be documented).
702 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case macros now propagate source information
703 through to the expanded code
705 This should result in better backtraces.
707 ** The currying behavior of `define' has been removed.
709 Before, `(define ((f a) b) (* a b))' would translate to
711 (define f (lambda (a) (lambda (b) (* a b))))
713 Now a syntax error is signaled, as this syntax is not supported by
714 default. Use the `(ice-9 curried-definitions)' module to get back the
717 ** New procedure, `define!'
719 `define!' is a procedure that takes two arguments, a symbol and a value,
720 and binds the value to the symbol in the current module. It's useful to
721 programmatically make definitions in the current module, and is slightly
722 less verbose than `module-define!'.
724 ** All modules have names now
726 Before, you could have anonymous modules: modules without names. Now,
727 because of hygiene and macros, all modules have names. If a module was
728 created without a name, the first time `module-name' is called on it, a
729 fresh name will be lazily generated for it.
731 ** The module namespace is now separate from the value namespace
733 It was a little-known implementation detail of Guile's module system
734 that it was built on a single hierarchical namespace of values -- that
735 if there was a module named `(foo bar)', then in the module named
736 `(foo)' there was a binding from `bar' to the `(foo bar)' module.
738 This was a neat trick, but presented a number of problems. One problem
739 was that the bindings in a module were not apparent from the module
740 itself; perhaps the `(foo)' module had a private binding for `bar', and
741 then an external contributor defined `(foo bar)'. In the end there can
742 be only one binding, so one of the two will see the wrong thing, and
743 produce an obtuse error of unclear provenance.
745 Also, the public interface of a module was also bound in the value
746 namespace, as `%module-public-interface'. This was a hack from the early
747 days of Guile's modules.
749 Both of these warts have been fixed by the addition of fields in the
750 `module' data type. Access to modules and their interfaces from the
751 value namespace has been deprecated, and all accessors use the new
752 record accessors appropriately.
754 When Guile is built with support for deprecated code, as is the default,
755 the value namespace is still searched for modules and public interfaces,
756 and a deprecation warning is raised as appropriate.
758 Finally, to support lazy loading of modules as one used to be able to do
759 with module binder procedures, Guile now has submodule binders, called
760 if a given submodule is not found. See boot-9.scm for more information.
762 ** New procedures: module-ref-submodule, module-define-submodule,
763 nested-ref-module, nested-define-module!, local-ref-module,
766 These new accessors are like their bare variants, but operate on
767 namespaces instead of values.
769 ** The (app modules) module tree is officially deprecated
771 It used to be that one could access a module named `(foo bar)' via
772 `(nested-ref the-root-module '(app modules foo bar))'. The `(app
773 modules)' bit was a never-used and never-documented abstraction, and has
774 been deprecated. See the following mail for a full discussion:
776 http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2010-04/msg00168.html
778 The `%app' binding is also deprecated.
780 ** `module-filename' field and accessor
782 Modules now record the file in which they are defined. This field may be
783 accessed with the new `module-filename' procedure.
785 ** Modules load within a known environment
787 It takes a few procedure calls to define a module, and those procedure
788 calls need to be in scope. Now we ensure that the current module when
789 loading a module is one that has the needed bindings, instead of relying
792 ** Many syntax errors have different texts now
794 Syntax errors still throw to the `syntax-error' key, but the arguments
795 are often different now. Perhaps in the future, Guile will switch to
796 using standard SRFI-35 conditions.
798 ** Returning multiple values to compiled code will silently truncate the
799 values to the expected number
801 For example, the interpreter would raise an error evaluating the form,
802 `(+ (values 1 2) (values 3 4))', because it would see the operands as
803 being two compound "values" objects, to which `+' does not apply.
805 The compiler, on the other hand, receives multiple values on the stack,
806 not as a compound object. Given that it must check the number of values
807 anyway, if too many values are provided for a continuation, it chooses
808 to truncate those values, effectively evaluating `(+ 1 3)' instead.
810 The idea is that the semantics that the compiler implements is more
811 intuitive, and the use of the interpreter will fade out with time.
812 This behavior is allowed both by the R5RS and the R6RS.
814 ** Multiple values in compiled code are not represented by compound
817 This change may manifest itself in the following situation:
819 (let ((val (foo))) (do-something) val)
821 In the interpreter, if `foo' returns multiple values, multiple values
822 are produced from the `let' expression. In the compiler, those values
823 are truncated to the first value, and that first value is returned. In
824 the compiler, if `foo' returns no values, an error will be raised, while
825 the interpreter would proceed.
827 Both of these behaviors are allowed by R5RS and R6RS. The compiler's
828 behavior is more correct, however. If you wish to preserve a potentially
829 multiply-valued return, you will need to set up a multiple-value
830 continuation, using `call-with-values'.
832 ** Defmacros are now implemented in terms of syntax-case.
834 The practical ramification of this is that the `defmacro?' predicate has
835 been removed, along with `defmacro-transformer', `macro-table',
836 `xformer-table', `assert-defmacro?!', `set-defmacro-transformer!' and
837 `defmacro:transformer'. This is because defmacros are simply macros. If
838 any of these procedures provided useful facilities to you, we encourage
839 you to contact the Guile developers.
841 ** Hygienic macros documented as the primary syntactic extension mechanism.
843 The macro documentation was finally fleshed out with some documentation
844 on `syntax-rules' and `syntax-case' macros, and other parts of the macro
845 expansion process. See "Macros" in the manual, for details.
847 ** psyntax is now the default expander
849 Scheme code is now expanded by default by the psyntax hygienic macro
850 expander. Expansion is performed completely before compilation or
853 Notably, syntax errors will be signalled before interpretation begins.
854 In the past, many syntax errors were only detected at runtime if the
855 code in question was memoized.
857 As part of its expansion, psyntax renames all lexically-bound
858 identifiers. Original identifier names are preserved and given to the
859 compiler, but the interpreter will see the renamed variables, e.g.,
860 `x432' instead of `x'.
862 Note that the psyntax that Guile uses is a fork, as Guile already had
863 modules before incompatible modules were added to psyntax -- about 10
864 years ago! Thus there are surely a number of bugs that have been fixed
865 in psyntax since then. If you find one, please notify bug-guile@gnu.org.
867 ** syntax-rules and syntax-case are available by default.
869 There is no longer any need to import the `(ice-9 syncase)' module
870 (which is now deprecated). The expander may be invoked directly via
871 `macroexpand', though it is normally searched for via the current module
874 Also, the helper routines for syntax-case are available in the default
875 environment as well: `syntax->datum', `datum->syntax',
876 `bound-identifier=?', `free-identifier=?', `generate-temporaries',
877 `identifier?', and `syntax-violation'. See the R6RS for documentation.
879 ** Tail patterns in syntax-case
881 Guile has pulled in some more recent changes from the psyntax portable
882 syntax expander, to implement support for "tail patterns". Such patterns
883 are supported by syntax-rules and syntax-case. This allows a syntax-case
884 match clause to have ellipses, then a pattern at the end. For example:
888 ((_ val match-clause ... (else e e* ...))
891 Note how there is MATCH-CLAUSE, which is ellipsized, then there is a
892 tail pattern for the else clause. Thanks to Andreas Rottmann for the
893 patch, and Kent Dybvig for the code.
895 ** Lexical bindings introduced by hygienic macros may not be referenced
896 by nonhygienic macros.
898 If a lexical binding is introduced by a hygienic macro, it may not be
899 referenced by a nonhygienic macro. For example, this works:
902 (define-macro (bind-x val body)
903 `(let ((x ,val)) ,body))
904 (define-macro (ref x)
911 (define-syntax bind-x
913 ((_ val body) (let ((x val)) body))))
914 (define-macro (ref x)
918 It is not normal to run into this situation with existing code. However,
919 if you have defmacros that expand to hygienic macros, it is possible to
920 run into situations like this. For example, if you have a defmacro that
921 generates a `while' expression, the `break' bound by the `while' may not
922 be visible within other parts of your defmacro. The solution is to port
923 from defmacros to syntax-rules or syntax-case.
925 ** Macros may no longer be referenced as first-class values.
927 In the past, you could evaluate e.g. `if', and get its macro value. Now,
928 expanding this form raises a syntax error.
930 Macros still /exist/ as first-class values, but they must be
931 /referenced/ via the module system, e.g. `(module-ref (current-module)
934 ** Macros may now have docstrings.
936 `object-documentation' from `(ice-9 documentation)' may be used to
937 retrieve the docstring, once you have a macro value -- but see the above
938 note about first-class macros. Docstrings are associated with the syntax
939 transformer procedures.
941 ** `case-lambda' is now available in the default environment.
943 The binding in the default environment is equivalent to the one from the
944 `(srfi srfi-16)' module. Use the srfi-16 module explicitly if you wish
945 to maintain compatibility with Guile 1.8 and earlier.
947 ** Procedures may now have more than one arity.
949 This can be the case, for example, in case-lambda procedures. The
950 arities of compiled procedures may be accessed via procedures from the
951 `(system vm program)' module; see "Compiled Procedures", "Optional
952 Arguments", and "Case-lambda" in the manual.
954 ** Deprecate arity access via (procedure-properties proc 'arity)
956 Instead of accessing a procedure's arity as a property, use the new
957 `procedure-minimum-arity' function, which gives the most permissive
958 arity that the the function has, in the same format as the old arity
961 ** `lambda*' and `define*' are now available in the default environment
963 As with `case-lambda', `(ice-9 optargs)' continues to be supported, for
964 compatibility purposes. No semantic change has been made (we hope).
965 Optional and keyword arguments now dispatch via special VM operations,
966 without the need to cons rest arguments, making them very fast.
968 ** New function, `truncated-print', with `format' support
970 `(ice-9 pretty-print)' now exports `truncated-print', a printer that
971 will ensure that the output stays within a certain width, truncating the
972 output in what is hopefully an intelligent manner. See the manual for
975 There is a new `format' specifier, `~@y', for doing a truncated
976 print (as opposed to `~y', which does a pretty-print). See the `format'
977 documentation for more details.
979 ** Passing a number as the destination of `format' is deprecated
981 The `format' procedure in `(ice-9 format)' now emits a deprecation
982 warning if a number is passed as its first argument.
984 ** SRFI-4 vectors reimplemented in terms of R6RS bytevectors
986 Guile now implements SRFI-4 vectors using bytevectors. Often when you
987 have a numeric vector, you end up wanting to write its bytes somewhere,
988 or have access to the underlying bytes, or read in bytes from somewhere
989 else. Bytevectors are very good at this sort of thing. But the SRFI-4
990 APIs are nicer to use when doing number-crunching, because they are
991 addressed by element and not by byte.
993 So as a compromise, Guile allows all bytevector functions to operate on
994 numeric vectors. They address the underlying bytes in the native
995 endianness, as one would expect.
997 Following the same reasoning, that it's just bytes underneath, Guile
998 also allows uniform vectors of a given type to be accessed as if they
999 were of any type. One can fill a u32vector, and access its elements with
1000 u8vector-ref. One can use f64vector-ref on bytevectors. It's all the
1003 In this way, uniform numeric vectors may be written to and read from
1004 input/output ports using the procedures that operate on bytevectors.
1006 Calls to SRFI-4 accessors (ref and set functions) from Scheme are now
1007 inlined to the VM instructions for bytevector access.
1009 See "SRFI-4" in the manual, for more information.
1011 ** Nonstandard SRFI-4 procedures now available from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'
1013 Guile's `(srfi srfi-4)' now only exports those srfi-4 procedures that
1014 are part of the standard. Complex uniform vectors and the
1015 `any->FOOvector' family are now available only from `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)'.
1017 Guile's default environment imports `(srfi srfi-4)', and probably should
1018 import `(srfi srfi-4 gnu)' as well.
1020 See "SRFI-4 Extensions" in the manual, for more information.
1022 ** New syntax: include-from-path.
1024 `include-from-path' is like `include', except it looks for its file in
1025 the load path. It can be used to compile other files into a file.
1027 ** New syntax: quasisyntax.
1029 `quasisyntax' is to `syntax' as `quasiquote' is to `quote'. See the R6RS
1030 documentation for more information. Thanks to Andre van Tonder for the
1033 ** `*unspecified*' is identifier syntax
1035 `*unspecified*' is no longer a variable, so it is optimized properly by
1036 the compiler, and is not `set!'-able.
1038 ** Unicode characters
1040 Unicode characters may be entered in octal format via e.g. `#\454', or
1041 created via (integer->char 300). A hex external representation will
1042 probably be introduced at some point.
1046 Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
1047 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
1048 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
1050 Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
1051 hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
1052 or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
1053 encoding of the port on which the string is read.
1057 One may now use U+03BB (GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA) as an identifier.
1059 ** Support for non-ASCII source code files
1061 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
1062 non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
1063 should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
1064 there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
1065 declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
1068 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
1069 code. This use is now discouraged. Binary input and output is
1070 currently supported by opening ports in the ISO-8859-1 locale.
1072 ** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
1074 Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
1075 operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
1076 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
1079 See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
1080 `set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
1081 and `port-conversion-strategy'.
1083 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
1085 ** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
1087 The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
1088 characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
1089 character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
1090 Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
1092 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
1094 `char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
1095 Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
1096 Unicode code points.
1098 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed
1100 These variables contained the names of control characters and were
1101 used when writing characters. While these were global, they were
1102 never intended to be public API. They have been replaced with private
1105 ** EBCDIC support is removed
1107 There was an EBCDIC compile flag that altered some of the character
1108 processing. It appeared that full EBCDIC support was never completed
1109 and was unmaintained.
1111 ** Compile-time warnings
1113 Guile can warn about potentially unbound free variables. Pass the
1114 -Wunbound-variable on the `guile-tools compile' command line, or add
1115 `#:warnings '(unbound-variable)' to your `compile' or `compile-file'
1116 invocation. Warnings are also enabled by default for expressions entered
1119 Guile can also warn when you pass the wrong number of arguments to a
1120 procedure, with -Warity-mismatch, or `arity-mismatch' in the
1121 `#:warnings' as above.
1123 Other warnings include `-Wunused-variable' and `-Wunused-toplevel', to
1124 warn about unused local or global (top-level) variables, and `-Wformat',
1125 to check for various errors related to the `format' procedure.
1127 ** A new `memoize-symbol' evaluator trap has been added.
1129 This trap can be used for efficiently implementing a Scheme code
1132 ** Duplicate bindings among used modules are resolved lazily.
1134 This slightly improves program startup times.
1136 ** New thread cancellation and thread cleanup API
1138 See `cancel-thread', `set-thread-cleanup!', and `thread-cleanup'.
1140 ** New threads are in `(guile-user)' by default, not `(guile)'
1142 It used to be that a new thread entering Guile would do so in the
1143 `(guile)' module, unless this was the first time Guile was initialized,
1144 in which case it was `(guile-user)'. This has been fixed to have all
1145 new threads unknown to Guile default to `(guile-user)'.
1147 ** GOOPS dispatch in scheme
1149 As an implementation detail, GOOPS dispatch is no longer implemented by
1150 special evaluator bytecodes, but rather directly via a Scheme function
1151 associated with an applicable struct. There is some VM support for the
1152 underlying primitives, like `class-of'.
1154 This change will in the future allow users to customize generic function
1155 dispatch without incurring a performance penalty, and allow us to
1156 implement method combinations.
1158 ** Applicable struct support
1160 One may now make structs from Scheme that may be applied as procedures.
1161 To do so, make a struct whose vtable is `<applicable-struct-vtable>'.
1162 That struct will be the vtable of your applicable structs; instances of
1163 that new struct are assumed to have the procedure in their first slot.
1164 `<applicable-struct-vtable>' is like Common Lisp's
1165 `funcallable-standard-class'. Likewise there is
1166 `<applicable-struct-with-setter-vtable>', which looks for the setter in
1167 the second slot. This needs to be better documented.
1171 GOOPS had a number of concepts that were relevant to the days of Tcl,
1172 but not any more: operators and entities, mainly. These objects were
1173 never documented, and it is unlikely that they were ever used. Operators
1174 were a kind of generic specific to the Tcl support. Entities were
1175 replaced by applicable structs, mentioned above.
1177 ** New struct slot allocation: "hidden"
1179 A hidden slot is readable and writable, but will not be initialized by a
1180 call to make-struct. For example in your layout you would say "ph"
1181 instead of "pw". Hidden slots are useful for adding new slots to a
1182 vtable without breaking existing invocations to make-struct.
1184 ** eqv? not a generic
1186 One used to be able to extend `eqv?' as a primitive-generic, but no
1187 more. Because `eqv?' is in the expansion of `case' (via `memv'), which
1188 should be able to compile to static dispatch tables, it doesn't make
1189 sense to allow extensions that would subvert this optimization.
1191 ** `inet-ntop' and `inet-pton' are always available.
1193 Guile now use a portable implementation of `inet_pton'/`inet_ntop', so
1194 there is no more need to use `inet-aton'/`inet-ntoa'. The latter
1195 functions are deprecated.
1197 ** New primitive: `tmpfile'.
1199 See "File System" in the manual.
1201 ** Random generator state may be serialized to a datum
1203 `random-state->datum' will serialize a random state to a datum, which
1204 may be written out, read back in later, and revivified using
1205 `datum->random-state'. See "Random" in the manual, for more details.
1207 ** Fix random number generator on 64-bit platforms
1209 There was a nasty bug on 64-bit platforms in which asking for a random
1210 integer with a range between 2**32 and 2**64 caused a segfault. After
1211 many embarrassing iterations, this was fixed.
1213 ** Fast bit operations.
1215 The bit-twiddling operations `ash', `logand', `logior', and `logxor' now
1216 have dedicated bytecodes. Guile is not just for symbolic computation,
1217 it's for number crunching too.
1219 ** Faster SRFI-9 record access
1221 SRFI-9 records are now implemented directly on top of Guile's structs,
1222 and their accessors are defined in such a way that normal call-sites
1223 inline to special VM opcodes, while still allowing for the general case
1224 (e.g. passing a record accessor to `apply').
1226 ** R6RS block comment support
1228 Guile now supports R6RS nested block comments. The start of a comment is
1229 marked with `#|', and the end with `|#'.
1231 ** `guile-2' cond-expand feature
1233 To test if your code is running under Guile 2.0 (or its alpha releases),
1234 test for the `guile-2' cond-expand feature. Like this:
1236 (cond-expand (guile-2 (eval-when (compile)
1237 ;; This must be evaluated at compile time.
1238 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1240 ;; Earlier versions of Guile do not have a
1241 ;; separate compilation phase.
1242 (fluid-set! current-reader my-reader)))
1244 ** New global variables: %load-compiled-path, %load-compiled-extensions
1246 These are analogous to %load-path and %load-extensions.
1248 ** New fluid: `%file-port-name-canonicalization'
1250 This fluid parameterizes the file names that are associated with file
1251 ports. If %file-port-name-canonicalization is 'absolute, then file names
1252 are canonicalized to be absolute paths. If it is 'relative, then the
1253 name is canonicalized, but any prefix corresponding to a member of
1254 `%load-path' is stripped off. Otherwise the names are passed through
1257 In addition, the `compile-file' and `compile-and-load' procedures bind
1258 %file-port-name-canonicalization to their `#:canonicalization' keyword
1259 argument, which defaults to 'relative. In this way, one might compile
1260 "../module/ice-9/boot-9.scm", but the path that gets residualized into
1261 the .go is "ice-9/boot-9.scm".
1263 ** New procedure, `make-promise'
1265 `(make-promise (lambda () foo))' is equivalent to `(delay foo)'.
1267 ** `defined?' may accept a module as its second argument
1269 Previously it only accepted internal structures from the evaluator.
1271 ** New entry into %guile-build-info: `ccachedir'
1273 ** Fix bug in `module-bound?'.
1275 `module-bound?' was returning true if a module did have a local
1276 variable, but one that was unbound, but another imported module bound
1277 the variable. This was an error, and was fixed.
1279 ** `(ice-9 syncase)' has been deprecated.
1281 As syntax-case is available by default, importing `(ice-9 syncase)' has
1282 no effect, and will trigger a deprecation warning.
1284 ** New readline history functions
1286 The (ice-9 readline) module now provides add-history, read-history,
1287 write-history and clear-history, which wrap the corresponding GNU
1288 History library functions.
1290 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures:
1291 dimensions->uniform-array, list->uniform-array, array-prototype
1293 Instead, use make-typed-array, list->typed-array, or array-type,
1296 ** Deprecate the old `scm-style-repl'
1298 The following bindings from boot-9 are now found in `(ice-9
1299 scm-style-repl)': `scm-style-repl', `error-catching-loop',
1300 `error-catching-repl', `bad-throw', `scm-repl-silent'
1301 `assert-repl-silence', `repl-print-unspecified',
1302 `assert-repl-print-unspecified', `scm-repl-verbose',
1303 `assert-repl-verbosity', `scm-repl-prompt', `set-repl-prompt!', `repl',
1304 `default-pre-unwind-handler', `handle-system-error',
1306 The following bindings have been deprecated, with no replacement:
1307 `pre-unwind-handler-dispatch'.
1309 The following bindings have been totally removed:
1310 `before-signal-stack'.
1312 Deprecated forwarding shims have been installed so that users that
1313 expect these bindings in the main namespace will still work, but receive
1314 a deprecation warning.
1316 ** `set-batch-mode?!' replaced by `ensure-batch-mode!'
1318 "Batch mode" is a flag used to tell a program that it is not running
1319 interactively. One usually turns it on after a fork. It may not be
1320 turned off. `ensure-batch-mode!' deprecates the old `set-batch-mode?!',
1321 because it is a better interface, as it can only turn on batch mode, not
1324 ** Deprecate `save-stack', `the-last-stack'
1326 It used to be that the way to debug programs in Guile was to capture the
1327 stack at the time of error, drop back to the REPL, then debug that
1328 stack. But this approach didn't compose, was tricky to get right in the
1329 presence of threads, and was not very powerful.
1331 So `save-stack', `stack-saved?', and `the-last-stack' have been moved to
1332 `(ice-9 save-stack)', with deprecated bindings left in the root module.
1334 ** `top-repl' has its own module
1336 The `top-repl' binding, called with Guile is run interactively, is now
1337 is its own module, `(ice-9 top-repl)'. A deprecated forwarding shim was
1338 left in the default environment.
1340 ** `display-error' takes a frame
1342 The `display-error' / `scm_display_error' helper now takes a frame as an
1343 argument instead of a stack. Stacks are still supported in deprecated
1344 builds. Additionally, `display-error' will again source location
1345 information for the error.
1347 ** No more `(ice-9 debug)'
1349 This module had some debugging helpers that are no longer applicable to
1350 the current debugging model. Importing this module will produce a
1351 deprecation warning. Users should contact bug-guile for support.
1353 ** Remove obsolete debug-options
1355 Removed `breakpoints', `trace', `procnames', `indent', `frames',
1356 `maxdepth', and `debug' debug-options.
1358 ** `backtrace' debug option on by default
1360 Given that Guile 2.0 can always give you a backtrace, backtraces are now
1363 ** `turn-on-debugging' deprecated
1365 ** Remove obsolete print-options
1367 The `source' and `closure-hook' print options are obsolete, and have
1370 ** Remove obsolete read-options
1372 The "elisp-strings" and "elisp-vectors" read options were unused and
1373 obsolete, so they have been removed.
1375 ** Remove eval-options and trap-options
1377 Eval-options and trap-options are obsolete with the new VM and
1380 ** Remove (ice-9 debugger) and (ice-9 debugging)
1382 See "Traps" and "Interactive Debugging" in the manual, for information
1383 on their replacements.
1385 ** Remove the GDS Emacs integration
1387 See "Using Guile in Emacs" in the manual, for info on how we think you
1388 should use Guile with Emacs.
1390 ** Deprecated: `lazy-catch'
1392 `lazy-catch' was a form that captured the stack at the point of a
1393 `throw', but the dynamic state at the point of the `catch'. It was a bit
1394 crazy. Please change to use `catch', possibly with a throw-handler, or
1395 `with-throw-handler'.
1397 ** Deprecated `@bind' syntax
1399 `@bind' was part of an older implementation of the Emacs Lisp language,
1400 and is no longer used.
1402 ** Miscellaneous other deprecations
1404 `apply-to-args', `has-suffix?', `scheme-file-suffix'
1405 `get-option', `for-next-option', `display-usage-report',
1406 `transform-usage-lambda', `collect', `set-batch-mode?!'
1408 ** Last but not least, the `λ' macro can be used in lieu of `lambda'
1410 * Changes to the C interface
1412 ** Guile now uses libgc, the Boehm-Demers-Weiser garbage collector
1414 The semantics of `scm_gc_malloc ()' have been changed, in a
1415 backward-compatible way. A new allocation routine,
1416 `scm_gc_malloc_pointerless ()', was added.
1418 Libgc is a conservative GC, which we hope will make interaction with C
1419 code easier and less error-prone.
1421 ** New procedures: `scm_to_latin1_stringn', `scm_from_latin1_stringn'
1423 Use these procedures when you know you have latin1-encoded or
1424 ASCII-encoded strings.
1426 ** New procedures: `scm_to_stringn', `scm_from_stringn'
1428 Use these procedures if you want to encode or decode from a particular
1431 ** New type definitions for `scm_t_intptr' and friends.
1433 `SCM_T_UINTPTR_MAX', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MIN', `SCM_T_INTPTR_MAX',
1434 `SIZEOF_SCM_T_BITS', `scm_t_intptr' and `scm_t_uintptr' are now
1435 available to C. Have fun!
1437 ** The GH interface (deprecated in version 1.6, 2001) was removed.
1439 ** Internal `scm_i_' functions now have "hidden" linkage with GCC/ELF
1441 This makes these internal functions technically not callable from
1444 ** Functions for handling `scm_option' now no longer require an argument
1445 indicating length of the `scm_t_option' array.
1447 ** Procedures-with-setters are now implemented using applicable structs
1449 From a user's perspective this doesn't mean very much. But if, for some
1450 odd reason, you used the SCM_PROCEDURE_WITH_SETTER_P, SCM_PROCEDURE, or
1451 SCM_SETTER macros, know that they're deprecated now. Also, scm_tc7_pws
1454 ** Remove old evaluator closures
1456 There used to be ranges of typecodes allocated to interpreted data
1457 structures, but that it no longer the case, given that interpreted
1458 procedure are now just regular VM closures. As a result, there is a
1459 newly free tc3, and a number of removed macros. See the ChangeLog for
1462 ** Primitive procedures are now VM trampoline procedures
1464 It used to be that there were something like 12 different typecodes
1465 allocated to primitive procedures, each with its own calling convention.
1466 Now there is only one, the gsubr. This may affect user code if you were
1467 defining a procedure using scm_c_make_subr rather scm_c_make_gsubr. The
1468 solution is to switch to use scm_c_make_gsubr. This solution works well
1469 both with the old 1.8 and and with the current 1.9 branch.
1471 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying "gsubrs",
1472 primitive procedures with specified numbers of required, optional, and
1473 rest arguments. Now, however, Guile represents gsubrs as normal VM
1474 procedures, with appropriate bytecode to parse out the correct number of
1475 arguments, including optional and rest arguments, and then with a
1476 special bytecode to apply the gsubr.
1478 This allows primitive procedures to appear on the VM stack, allowing
1479 them to be accurately counted in profiles. Also they now have more
1480 debugging information attached to them -- their number of arguments, for
1481 example. In addition, the VM can completely inline the application
1482 mechanics, allowing for faster primitive calls.
1484 However there are some changes on the C level. There is no more
1485 `scm_tc7_gsubr' or `scm_tcs_subrs' typecode for primitive procedures, as
1486 they are just VM procedures. Likewise the macros `SCM_GSUBR_TYPE',
1487 `SCM_GSUBR_MAKTYPE', `SCM_GSUBR_REQ', `SCM_GSUBR_OPT', and
1488 `SCM_GSUBR_REST' are gone, as are `SCM_SUBR_META_INFO', `SCM_SUBR_PROPS'
1489 `SCM_SET_SUBR_GENERIC_LOC', and `SCM_SUBR_ARITY_TO_TYPE'.
1491 Perhaps more significantly, `scm_c_make_subr',
1492 `scm_c_make_subr_with_generic', `scm_c_define_subr', and
1493 `scm_c_define_subr_with_generic'. They all operated on subr typecodes,
1494 and there are no more subr typecodes. Use the scm_c_make_gsubr family
1497 Normal users of gsubrs should not be affected, though, as the
1498 scm_c_make_gsubr family still is the correct way to create primitive
1501 ** Remove deprecated array C interfaces
1503 Removed the deprecated array functions `scm_i_arrayp',
1504 `scm_i_array_ndim', `scm_i_array_mem', `scm_i_array_v',
1505 `scm_i_array_base', `scm_i_array_dims', and the deprecated macros
1506 `SCM_ARRAYP', `SCM_ARRAY_NDIM', `SCM_ARRAY_CONTP', `SCM_ARRAY_MEM',
1507 `SCM_ARRAY_V', `SCM_ARRAY_BASE', and `SCM_ARRAY_DIMS'.
1509 ** Remove unused snarf macros
1511 `SCM_DEFINE1', `SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC_1', `SCM_PROC1, and `SCM_GPROC1'
1512 are no more. Use SCM_DEFINE or SCM_PRIMITIVE_GENERIC instead.
1514 ** New functions: `scm_call_n', `scm_c_run_hookn'
1516 `scm_call_n' applies to apply a function to an array of arguments.
1517 `scm_c_run_hookn' runs a hook with an array of arguments.
1519 ** Some SMOB types changed to have static typecodes
1521 Fluids, dynamic states, and hash tables used to be SMOB objects, but now
1522 they have statically allocated tc7 typecodes.
1524 ** Preparations for changing SMOB representation
1526 If things go right, we'll be changing the SMOB representation soon. To
1527 that end, we did a lot of cleanups to calls to e.g. SCM_CELL_WORD_2(x) when
1528 the code meant SCM_SMOB_DATA_2(x); user code will need similar changes
1529 in the future. Code accessing SMOBs using SCM_CELL macros was never
1530 correct, but until now things still worked. Users should be aware of
1533 ** Changed invocation mechanics of applicable SMOBs
1535 Guile's old evaluator used to have special cases for applying SMOB
1536 objects. Now, with the VM, when Guile sees a SMOB, it looks up a VM
1537 trampoline procedure for it, and use the normal mechanics to apply the
1538 trampoline. This simplifies procedure application in the normal,
1541 The upshot is that the mechanics used to apply a SMOB are different from
1542 1.8. Descriptors no longer have `apply_0', `apply_1', `apply_2', and
1543 `apply_3' functions, and the macros SCM_SMOB_APPLY_0 and friends are now
1544 deprecated. Just use the scm_call_0 family of procedures.
1546 ** Removed support shlibs for SRFIs 1, 4, 13, 14, and 60
1548 Though these SRFI support libraries did expose API, they encoded a
1549 strange version string into their library names. That version was never
1550 programmatically exported, so there was no way people could use the
1553 This was a fortunate oversight, as it allows us to remove the need for
1554 extra, needless shared libraries --- the C support code for SRFIs 4, 13,
1555 and 14 was already in core --- and allow us to incrementally return the
1556 SRFI implementation to Scheme.
1558 ** New C function: scm_module_public_interface
1560 This procedure corresponds to Scheme's `module-public-interface'.
1562 ** Undeprecate `scm_the_root_module ()'
1564 It's useful to be able to get the root module from C without doing a
1567 ** Inline vector allocation
1569 Instead of having vectors point out into the heap for their data, their
1570 data is now allocated inline to the vector object itself. The same is
1571 true for bytevectors, by default, though there is an indirection
1572 available which should allow for making a bytevector from an existing
1575 ** New struct constructors that don't involve making lists
1577 `scm_c_make_struct' and `scm_c_make_structv' are new varargs and array
1578 constructors, respectively, for structs. You might find them useful.
1582 In Guile 1.8, there were debugging frames on the C stack. Now there is
1583 no more need to explicitly mark the stack in this way, because Guile has
1584 a VM stack that it knows how to walk, which simplifies the C API
1585 considerably. See the ChangeLog for details; the relevant interface is
1586 in libguile/stacks.h. The Scheme API has not been changed significantly.
1588 ** Removal of Guile's primitive object system.
1590 There were a number of pieces in `objects.[ch]' that tried to be a
1591 minimal object system, but were never documented, and were quickly
1592 obseleted by GOOPS' merge into Guile proper. So `scm_make_class_object',
1593 `scm_make_subclass_object', `scm_metaclass_standard', and like symbols
1594 from objects.h are no more. In the very unlikely case in which these
1595 were useful to you, we urge you to contact guile-devel.
1599 Actually the future is still in the state that it was, is, and ever
1600 shall be, Amen, except that `futures.c' and `futures.h' are no longer a
1601 part of it. These files were experimental, never compiled, and would be
1602 better implemented in Scheme anyway. In the future, that is.
1604 ** Deprecate trampolines
1606 There used to be C functions `scm_trampoline_0', `scm_trampoline_1', and
1607 so on. The point was to do some precomputation on the type of the
1608 procedure, then return a specialized "call" procedure. However this
1609 optimization wasn't actually an optimization, so it is now deprecated.
1610 Just use `scm_call_0', etc instead.
1612 ** Deprecated `scm_badargsp'
1614 This function is unused in Guile, but was part of its API.
1616 ** Better support for Lisp `nil'.
1618 The bit representation of `nil' has been tweaked so that it is now very
1619 efficient to check e.g. if a value is equal to Scheme's end-of-list or
1620 Lisp's nil. Additionally there are a heap of new, specific predicates
1621 like scm_is_null_or_nil.
1623 ** Better integration of Lisp `nil'.
1625 `scm_is_boolean', `scm_is_false', and `scm_is_null' all return true now
1626 for Lisp's `nil'. This shouldn't affect any Scheme code at this point,
1627 but when we start to integrate more with Emacs, it is possible that we
1628 break code that assumes that, for example, `(not x)' implies that `x' is
1629 `eq?' to `#f'. This is not a common assumption. Refactoring affected
1630 code to rely on properties instead of identities will improve code
1631 correctness. See "Nil" in the manual, for more details.
1633 ** Support for static allocation of strings, symbols, and subrs.
1635 Calls to snarfing CPP macros like SCM_DEFINE macro will now allocate
1636 much of their associated data as static variables, reducing Guile's
1639 ** `scm_stat' has an additional argument, `exception_on_error'
1640 ** `scm_primitive_load_path' has an additional argument `exception_on_not_found'
1642 ** `scm_set_port_seek' and `scm_set_port_truncate' use the `scm_t_off' type
1644 Previously they would use the `off_t' type, which is fragile since its
1645 definition depends on the application's value for `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS'.
1647 ** The `long_long' C type, deprecated in 1.8, has been removed
1649 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
1650 scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
1651 scm_dimensions_to_uniform_array, scm_make_ra, scm_shap2ra, scm_cvref,
1652 scm_ra_set_contp, scm_aind, scm_raprin1
1654 These functions have been deprecated since early 2005.
1656 * Changes to the distribution
1658 ** Guile's license is now LGPLv3+
1660 In other words the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3 or
1661 later (at the discretion of each person that chooses to redistribute
1666 Guile's build is visually quieter, due to the use of Automake 1.11's
1667 AM_SILENT_RULES. Build as `make V=1' to see all of the output.
1669 ** GOOPS documentation folded into Guile reference manual
1671 GOOPS, Guile's object system, used to be documented in separate manuals.
1672 This content is now included in Guile's manual directly.
1674 ** `guile-config' will be deprecated in favor of `pkg-config'
1676 `guile-config' has been rewritten to get its information from
1677 `pkg-config', so this should be a transparent change. Note however that
1678 guile.m4 has yet to be modified to call pkg-config instead of
1681 ** Guile now provides `guile-2.0.pc' instead of `guile-1.8.pc'
1683 Programs that use `pkg-config' to find Guile or one of its Autoconf
1684 macros should now require `guile-2.0' instead of `guile-1.8'.
1686 ** New installation directory: $(pkglibdir)/1.9/ccache
1688 If $(libdir) is /usr/lib, for example, Guile will install its .go files
1689 to /usr/lib/guile/1.9/ccache. These files are architecture-specific.
1691 ** Parallel installability fixes
1693 Guile now installs its header files to a effective-version-specific
1694 directory, and includes the effective version (e.g. 2.0) in the library
1695 name (e.g. libguile-2.0.so).
1697 This change should be transparent to users, who should detect Guile via
1698 the guile.m4 macro, or the guile-2.0.pc pkg-config file. It will allow
1699 parallel installs for multiple versions of Guile development
1702 ** Dynamically loadable extensions may be placed in a Guile-specific path
1704 Before, Guile only searched the system library paths for extensions
1705 (e.g. /usr/lib), which meant that the names of Guile extensions had to
1706 be globally unique. Installing them to a Guile-specific extensions
1707 directory is cleaner. Use `pkg-config --variable=extensiondir
1708 guile-2.0' to get the location of the extensions directory.
1710 ** User Scheme code may be placed in a version-specific path
1712 Before, there was only one way to install user Scheme code to a
1713 version-specific Guile directory: install to Guile's own path,
1714 e.g. /usr/share/guile/2.0. The site directory,
1715 e.g. /usr/share/guile/site, was unversioned. This has been changed to
1716 add a version-specific site directory, e.g. /usr/share/guile/site/2.0,
1717 searched before the global site directory.
1719 ** New dependency: libgc
1721 See http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/, for more information.
1723 ** New dependency: GNU libunistring
1725 See http://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/, for more information. Our
1726 Unicode support uses routines from libunistring.
1728 ** New dependency: libffi
1730 See http://sourceware.org/libffi/, for more information.
1734 Changes in 1.8.8 (since 1.8.7)
1738 ** Fix possible buffer overruns when parsing numbers
1739 ** Avoid clash with system setjmp/longjmp on IA64
1740 ** Fix `wrong type arg' exceptions with IPv6 addresses
1743 Changes in 1.8.7 (since 1.8.6)
1745 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1747 ** `(srfi srfi-98)', an interface to access environment variables
1751 ** Fix compilation with `--disable-deprecated'
1752 ** Fix %fast-slot-ref/set!, to avoid possible segmentation fault
1753 ** Fix MinGW build problem caused by HAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC confusion
1754 ** Fix build problem when scm_t_timespec is different from struct timespec
1755 ** Fix build when compiled with -Wundef -Werror
1756 ** More build fixes for `alphaev56-dec-osf5.1b' (Tru64)
1757 ** Build fixes for `powerpc-ibm-aix5.3.0.0' (AIX 5.3)
1758 ** With GCC, always compile with `-mieee' on `alpha*' and `sh*'
1759 ** Better diagnose broken `(strftime "%z" ...)' in `time.test' (bug #24130)
1760 ** Fix parsing of SRFI-88/postfix keywords longer than 128 characters
1761 ** Fix reading of complex numbers where both parts are inexact decimals
1763 ** Allow @ macro to work with (ice-9 syncase)
1765 Previously, use of the @ macro in a module whose code is being
1766 transformed by (ice-9 syncase) would cause an "Invalid syntax" error.
1767 Now it works as you would expect (giving the value of the specified
1770 ** Have `scm_take_locale_symbol ()' return an interned symbol (bug #25865)
1773 Changes in 1.8.6 (since 1.8.5)
1775 * New features (see the manual for details)
1777 ** New convenience function `scm_c_symbol_length ()'
1779 ** Single stepping through code from Emacs
1781 When you use GDS to evaluate Scheme code from Emacs, you can now use
1782 `C-u' to indicate that you want to single step through that code. See
1783 `Evaluating Scheme Code' in the manual for more details.
1785 ** New "guile(1)" man page!
1787 * Changes to the distribution
1789 ** Automake's `AM_MAINTAINER_MODE' is no longer used
1791 Thus, the `--enable-maintainer-mode' configure option is no longer
1792 available: Guile is now always configured in "maintainer mode".
1794 ** `ChangeLog' files are no longer updated
1796 Instead, changes are detailed in the version control system's logs. See
1797 the top-level `ChangeLog' files for details.
1802 ** `symbol->string' now returns a read-only string, as per R5RS
1803 ** Fix incorrect handling of the FLAGS argument of `fold-matches'
1804 ** `guile-config link' now prints `-L$libdir' before `-lguile'
1805 ** Fix memory corruption involving GOOPS' `class-redefinition'
1806 ** Fix possible deadlock in `mutex-lock'
1807 ** Fix build issue on Tru64 and ia64-hp-hpux11.23 (`SCM_UNPACK' macro)
1808 ** Fix build issue on mips, mipsel, powerpc and ia64 (stack direction)
1809 ** Fix build issue on hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.11 (`dirent64' and `readdir64_r')
1810 ** Fix build issue on i386-unknown-freebsd7.0 ("break strict-aliasing rules")
1811 ** Fix misleading output from `(help rationalize)'
1812 ** Fix build failure on Debian hppa architecture (bad stack growth detection)
1813 ** Fix `gcd' when called with a single, negative argument.
1814 ** Fix `Stack overflow' errors seen when building on some platforms
1815 ** Fix bug when `scm_with_guile ()' was called several times from the
1817 ** The handler of SRFI-34 `with-exception-handler' is now invoked in the
1818 dynamic environment of the call to `raise'
1819 ** Fix potential deadlock in `make-struct'
1820 ** Fix compilation problem with libltdl from Libtool 2.2.x
1821 ** Fix sloppy bound checking in `string-{ref,set!}' with the empty string
1824 Changes in 1.8.5 (since 1.8.4)
1826 * Infrastructure changes
1828 ** Guile repository switched from CVS to Git
1830 The new repository can be accessed using
1831 "git-clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/guile.git", or can be browsed on-line at
1832 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=guile.git . See `README' for details.
1834 ** Add support for `pkg-config'
1836 See "Autoconf Support" in the manual for details.
1838 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1842 * New features (see the manual for details)
1844 ** New `postfix' read option, for SRFI-88 keyword syntax
1845 ** Some I/O primitives have been inlined, which improves I/O performance
1846 ** New object-based traps infrastructure
1848 This is a GOOPS-based infrastructure that builds on Guile's low-level
1849 evaluator trap calls and facilitates the development of debugging
1850 features like single-stepping, breakpoints, tracing and profiling.
1851 See the `Traps' node of the manual for details.
1853 ** New support for working on Guile code from within Emacs
1855 Guile now incorporates the `GDS' library (previously distributed
1856 separately) for working on Guile code from within Emacs. See the
1857 `Using Guile In Emacs' node of the manual for details.
1861 ** `scm_add_slot ()' no longer segfaults (fixes bug #22369)
1862 ** Fixed `(ice-9 match)' for patterns like `((_ ...) ...)'
1864 Previously, expressions like `(match '((foo) (bar)) (((_ ...) ...) #t))'
1865 would trigger an unbound variable error for `match:andmap'.
1867 ** `(oop goops describe)' now properly provides the `describe' feature
1868 ** Fixed `args-fold' from `(srfi srfi-37)'
1870 Previously, parsing short option names of argument-less options would
1871 lead to a stack overflow.
1873 ** `(srfi srfi-35)' is now visible through `cond-expand'
1874 ** Fixed type-checking for the second argument of `eval'
1875 ** Fixed type-checking for SRFI-1 `partition'
1876 ** Fixed `struct-ref' and `struct-set!' on "light structs"
1877 ** Honor struct field access rights in GOOPS
1878 ** Changed the storage strategy of source properties, which fixes a deadlock
1879 ** Allow compilation of Guile-using programs in C99 mode with GCC 4.3 and later
1880 ** Fixed build issue for GNU/Linux on IA64
1881 ** Fixed build issues on NetBSD 1.6
1882 ** Fixed build issue on Solaris 2.10 x86_64
1883 ** Fixed build issue with DEC/Compaq/HP's compiler
1884 ** Fixed `scm_from_complex_double' build issue on FreeBSD
1885 ** Fixed `alloca' build issue on FreeBSD 6
1886 ** Removed use of non-portable makefile constructs
1887 ** Fixed shadowing of libc's <random.h> on Tru64, which broke compilation
1888 ** Make sure all tests honor `$TMPDIR'
1891 Changes in 1.8.4 (since 1.8.3)
1895 ** CR (ASCII 0x0d) is (again) recognized as a token delimiter by the reader
1896 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when displaying the
1897 backtrace of a stack with a promise object (made by `delay') in it.
1898 ** Make `accept' leave guile mode while blocking
1899 ** `scm_c_read ()' and `scm_c_write ()' now type-check their port argument
1900 ** Fixed a build problem on AIX (use of func_data identifier)
1901 ** Fixed a segmentation fault which occurred when hashx-ref or hashx-set! was
1902 called with an associator proc that returns neither a pair nor #f.
1903 ** Secondary threads now always return a valid module for (current-module).
1904 ** Avoid MacOS build problems caused by incorrect combination of "64"
1905 system and library calls.
1906 ** `guile-snarf' now honors `$TMPDIR'
1907 ** `guile-config compile' now reports CPPFLAGS used at compile-time
1908 ** Fixed build with Sun Studio (Solaris 9)
1909 ** Fixed wrong-type-arg errors when creating zero length SRFI-4
1910 uniform vectors on AIX.
1911 ** Fixed a deadlock that occurs upon GC with multiple threads.
1912 ** Fixed compile problem with GCC on Solaris and AIX (use of _Complex_I)
1913 ** Fixed autotool-derived build problems on AIX 6.1.
1914 ** Fixed NetBSD/alpha support
1915 ** Fixed MacOS build problem caused by use of rl_get_keymap(_name)
1917 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1921 * Documentation fixes and improvements
1923 ** Removed premature breakpoint documentation
1925 The features described are not available in the series of 1.8.x
1926 releases, so the documentation was misleading and has been removed.
1928 ** More about Guile's default *random-state* variable
1930 ** GOOPS: more about how to use `next-method'
1932 * Changes to the distribution
1934 ** Corrected a few files that referred incorrectly to the old GPL + special exception licence
1936 In fact Guile since 1.8.0 has been licensed with the GNU Lesser
1937 General Public License, and the few incorrect files have now been
1938 fixed to agree with the rest of the Guile distribution.
1940 ** Removed unnecessary extra copies of COPYING*
1942 The distribution now contains a single COPYING.LESSER at its top level.
1945 Changes in 1.8.3 (since 1.8.2)
1947 * New modules (see the manual for details)
1954 ** The `(ice-9 slib)' module now works as expected
1955 ** Expressions like "(set! 'x #t)" no longer yield a crash
1956 ** Warnings about duplicate bindings now go to stderr
1957 ** A memory leak in `make-socket-address' was fixed
1958 ** Alignment issues (e.g., on SPARC) in network routines were fixed
1959 ** A threading issue that showed up at least on NetBSD was fixed
1960 ** Build problems on Solaris and IRIX fixed
1962 * Implementation improvements
1964 ** The reader is now faster, which reduces startup time
1965 ** Procedures returned by `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' are faster
1968 Changes in 1.8.2 (since 1.8.1):
1970 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
1972 ** set-program-arguments
1975 * Incompatible changes
1977 ** The body of a top-level `define' no longer sees the binding being created
1979 In a top-level `define', the binding being created is no longer visible
1980 from the `define' body. This breaks code like
1981 "(define foo (begin (set! foo 1) (+ foo 1)))", where `foo' is now
1982 unbound in the body. However, such code was not R5RS-compliant anyway,
1987 ** Fractions were not `equal?' if stored in unreduced form.
1988 (A subtle problem, since printing a value reduced it, making it work.)
1989 ** srfi-60 `copy-bit' failed on 64-bit systems
1990 ** "guile --use-srfi" option at the REPL can replace core functions
1991 (Programs run with that option were ok, but in the interactive REPL
1992 the core bindings got priority, preventing SRFI replacements or
1994 ** `regexp-exec' doesn't abort() on #\nul in the input or bad flags arg
1995 ** `kill' on mingw throws an error for a PID other than oneself
1996 ** Procedure names are attached to procedure-with-setters
1997 ** Array read syntax works with negative lower bound
1998 ** `array-in-bounds?' fix if an array has different lower bounds on each index
1999 ** `*' returns exact 0 for "(* inexact 0)"
2000 This follows what it always did for "(* 0 inexact)".
2001 ** SRFI-19: Value returned by `(current-time time-process)' was incorrect
2002 ** SRFI-19: `date->julian-day' did not account for timezone offset
2003 ** `ttyname' no longer crashes when passed a non-tty argument
2004 ** `inet-ntop' no longer crashes on SPARC when passed an `AF_INET' address
2005 ** Small memory leaks have been fixed in `make-fluid' and `add-history'
2006 ** GOOPS: Fixed a bug in `method-more-specific?'
2007 ** Build problems on Solaris fixed
2008 ** Build problems on HP-UX IA64 fixed
2009 ** Build problems on MinGW fixed
2012 Changes in 1.8.1 (since 1.8.0):
2014 * LFS functions are now used to access 64-bit files on 32-bit systems.
2016 * New procedures (see the manual for details)
2018 ** primitive-_exit - [Scheme] the-root-module
2019 ** scm_primitive__exit - [C]
2020 ** make-completion-function - [Scheme] (ice-9 readline)
2021 ** scm_c_locale_stringn_to_number - [C]
2022 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse [C]
2023 ** scm_srfi1_append_reverse_x [C]
2031 ** Build problems have been fixed on MacOS, SunOS, and QNX.
2033 ** `strftime' fix sign of %z timezone offset.
2035 ** A one-dimensional array can now be 'equal?' to a vector.
2037 ** Structures, records, and SRFI-9 records can now be compared with `equal?'.
2039 ** SRFI-14 standard char sets are recomputed upon a successful `setlocale'.
2041 ** `record-accessor' and `record-modifier' now have strict type checks.
2043 Record accessor and modifier procedures now throw an error if the
2044 record type of the record they're given is not the type expected.
2045 (Previously accessors returned #f and modifiers silently did nothing).
2047 ** It is now OK to use both autoload and use-modules on a given module.
2049 ** `apply' checks the number of arguments more carefully on "0 or 1" funcs.
2051 Previously there was no checking on primatives like make-vector that
2052 accept "one or two" arguments. Now there is.
2054 ** The srfi-1 assoc function now calls its equality predicate properly.
2056 Previously srfi-1 assoc would call the equality predicate with the key
2057 last. According to the SRFI, the key should be first.
2059 ** A bug in n-par-for-each and n-for-each-par-map has been fixed.
2061 ** The array-set! procedure no longer segfaults when given a bit vector.
2063 ** Bugs in make-shared-array have been fixed.
2065 ** string<? and friends now follow char<? etc order on 8-bit chars.
2067 ** The format procedure now handles inf and nan values for ~f correctly.
2069 ** exact->inexact should no longer overflow when given certain large fractions.
2071 ** srfi-9 accessor and modifier procedures now have strict record type checks.
2073 This matches the srfi-9 specification.
2075 ** (ice-9 ftw) procedures won't ignore different files with same inode number.
2077 Previously the (ice-9 ftw) procedures would ignore any file that had
2078 the same inode number as a file they had already seen, even if that
2079 file was on a different device.
2082 Changes in 1.8.0 (changes since the 1.6.x series):
2084 * Changes to the distribution
2086 ** Guile is now licensed with the GNU Lesser General Public License.
2088 ** The manual is now licensed with the GNU Free Documentation License.
2090 ** Guile now requires GNU MP (http://swox.com/gmp).
2092 Guile now uses the GNU MP library for arbitrary precision arithmetic.
2094 ** Guile now has separate private and public configuration headers.
2096 That is, things like HAVE_STRING_H no longer leak from Guile's
2099 ** Guile now provides and uses an "effective" version number.
2101 Guile now provides scm_effective_version and effective-version
2102 functions which return the "effective" version number. This is just
2103 the normal full version string without the final micro-version number,
2104 so the current effective-version is "1.8". The effective version
2105 should remain unchanged during a stable series, and should be used for
2106 items like the versioned share directory name
2107 i.e. /usr/share/guile/1.8.
2109 Providing an unchanging version number during a stable release for
2110 things like the versioned share directory can be particularly
2111 important for Guile "add-on" packages, since it provides a directory
2112 that they can install to that won't be changed out from under them
2113 with each micro release during a stable series.
2115 ** Thread implementation has changed.
2117 When you configure "--with-threads=null", you will get the usual
2118 threading API (call-with-new-thread, make-mutex, etc), but you can't
2119 actually create new threads. Also, "--with-threads=no" is now
2120 equivalent to "--with-threads=null". This means that the thread API
2121 is always present, although you might not be able to create new
2124 When you configure "--with-threads=pthreads" or "--with-threads=yes",
2125 you will get threads that are implemented with the portable POSIX
2126 threads. These threads can run concurrently (unlike the previous
2127 "coop" thread implementation), but need to cooperate for things like
2130 The default is "pthreads", unless your platform doesn't have pthreads,
2131 in which case "null" threads are used.
2133 See the manual for details, nodes "Initialization", "Multi-Threading",
2134 "Blocking", and others.
2136 ** There is the new notion of 'discouraged' features.
2138 This is a milder form of deprecation.
2140 Things that are discouraged should not be used in new code, but it is
2141 OK to leave them in old code for now. When a discouraged feature is
2142 used, no warning message is printed like there is for 'deprecated'
2143 features. Also, things that are merely discouraged are nevertheless
2144 implemented efficiently, while deprecated features can be very slow.
2146 You can omit discouraged features from libguile by configuring it with
2147 the '--disable-discouraged' option.
2149 ** Deprecation warnings can be controlled at run-time.
2151 (debug-enable 'warn-deprecated) switches them on and (debug-disable
2152 'warn-deprecated) switches them off.
2154 ** Support for SRFI 61, extended cond syntax for multiple values has
2157 This SRFI is always available.
2159 ** Support for require-extension, SRFI-55, has been added.
2161 The SRFI-55 special form `require-extension' has been added. It is
2162 available at startup, and provides a portable way to load Scheme
2163 extensions. SRFI-55 only requires support for one type of extension,
2164 "srfi"; so a set of SRFIs may be loaded via (require-extension (srfi 1
2167 ** New module (srfi srfi-26) provides support for `cut' and `cute'.
2169 The (srfi srfi-26) module is an implementation of SRFI-26 which
2170 provides the `cut' and `cute' syntax. These may be used to specialize
2171 parameters without currying.
2173 ** New module (srfi srfi-31)
2175 This is an implementation of SRFI-31 which provides a special form
2176 `rec' for recursive evaluation.
2178 ** The modules (srfi srfi-13), (srfi srfi-14) and (srfi srfi-4) have
2179 been merged with the core, making their functionality always
2182 The modules are still available, tho, and you could use them together
2183 with a renaming import, for example.
2185 ** Guile no longer includes its own version of libltdl.
2187 The official version is good enough now.
2189 ** The --enable-htmldoc option has been removed from 'configure'.
2191 Support for translating the documentation into HTML is now always
2192 provided. Use 'make html'.
2194 ** New module (ice-9 serialize):
2196 (serialize FORM1 ...) and (parallelize FORM1 ...) are useful when you
2197 don't trust the thread safety of most of your program, but where you
2198 have some section(s) of code which you consider can run in parallel to
2199 other sections. See ice-9/serialize.scm for more information.
2201 ** The configure option '--disable-arrays' has been removed.
2203 Support for arrays and uniform numeric arrays is now always included
2206 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
2208 ** New command line option `-L'.
2210 This option adds a directory to the front of the load path.
2212 ** New command line option `--no-debug'.
2214 Specifying `--no-debug' on the command line will keep the debugging
2215 evaluator turned off, even for interactive sessions.
2217 ** User-init file ~/.guile is now loaded with the debugging evaluator.
2219 Previously, the normal evaluator would have been used. Using the
2220 debugging evaluator gives better error messages.
2222 ** The '-e' option now 'read's its argument.
2224 This is to allow the new '(@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)' construct to
2225 be used with '-e'. For example, you can now write a script like
2228 exec guile -e '(@ (demo) main)' -s "$0" "$@"
2231 (define-module (demo)
2235 (format #t "Demo: ~a~%" args))
2238 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
2240 ** Guardians have changed back to their original semantics
2242 Guardians now behave like described in the paper by Dybvig et al. In
2243 particular, they no longer make guarantees about the order in which
2244 they return objects, and they can no longer be greedy.
2246 They no longer drop cyclic data structures.
2248 The C function scm_make_guardian has been changed incompatibly and no
2249 longer takes the 'greedy_p' argument.
2251 ** New function hashx-remove!
2253 This function completes the set of 'hashx' functions.
2255 ** The concept of dynamic roots has been factored into continuation
2256 barriers and dynamic states.
2258 Each thread has a current dynamic state that carries the values of the
2259 fluids. You can create and copy dynamic states and use them as the
2260 second argument for 'eval'. See "Fluids and Dynamic States" in the
2263 To restrict the influence that captured continuations can have on the
2264 control flow, you can errect continuation barriers. See "Continuation
2265 Barriers" in the manual.
2267 The function call-with-dynamic-root now essentially temporarily
2268 installs a new dynamic state and errects a continuation barrier.
2270 ** The default load path no longer includes "." at the end.
2272 Automatically loading modules from the current directory should not
2273 happen by default. If you want to allow it in a more controlled
2274 manner, set the environment variable GUILE_LOAD_PATH or the Scheme
2275 variable %load-path.
2277 ** The uniform vector and array support has been overhauled.
2279 It now complies with SRFI-4 and the weird prototype based uniform
2280 array creation has been deprecated. See the manual for more details.
2282 Some non-compatible changes have been made:
2283 - characters can no longer be stored into byte arrays.
2284 - strings and bit vectors are no longer considered to be uniform numeric
2286 - array-rank throws an error for non-arrays instead of returning zero.
2287 - array-ref does no longer accept non-arrays when no indices are given.
2289 There is the new notion of 'generalized vectors' and corresponding
2290 procedures like 'generalized-vector-ref'. Generalized vectors include
2291 strings, bitvectors, ordinary vectors, and uniform numeric vectors.
2293 Arrays use generalized vectors as their storage, so that you still
2294 have arrays of characters, bits, etc. However, uniform-array-read!
2295 and uniform-array-write can no longer read/write strings and
2298 ** There is now support for copy-on-write substrings, mutation-sharing
2299 substrings and read-only strings.
2301 Three new procedures are related to this: substring/shared,
2302 substring/copy, and substring/read-only. See the manual for more
2305 ** Backtraces will now highlight the value that caused the error.
2307 By default, these values are enclosed in "{...}", such as in this
2316 <unnamed port>:1:1: In procedure car in expression (car (quote a)):
2317 <unnamed port>:1:1: Wrong type (expecting pair): a
2318 ABORT: (wrong-type-arg)
2320 The prefix and suffix used for highlighting can be set via the two new
2321 printer options 'highlight-prefix' and 'highlight-suffix'. For
2322 example, putting this into ~/.guile will output the bad value in bold
2323 on an ANSI terminal:
2325 (print-set! highlight-prefix "\x1b[1m")
2326 (print-set! highlight-suffix "\x1b[22m")
2329 ** 'gettext' support for internationalization has been added.
2331 See the manual for details.
2333 ** New syntax '@' and '@@':
2335 You can now directly refer to variables exported from a module by
2338 (@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME)
2340 For example (@ (ice-9 pretty-print) pretty-print) will directly access
2341 the pretty-print variable exported from the (ice-9 pretty-print)
2342 module. You don't need to 'use' that module first. You can also use
2343 '@' as a target of 'set!', as in (set! (@ mod var) val).
2345 The related syntax (@@ MODULE-NAME VARIABLE-NAME) works just like '@',
2346 but it can also access variables that have not been exported. It is
2347 intended only for kluges and temporary fixes and for debugging, not
2350 ** Keyword syntax has been made more disciplined.
2352 Previously, the name of a keyword was read as a 'token' but printed as
2353 a symbol. Now, it is read as a general Scheme datum which must be a
2364 ERROR: In expression (a b c):
2368 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
2373 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): 12
2377 ERROR: Wrong type (expecting symbol): (a b c)
2381 ** The printing of symbols that might look like keywords can be
2384 The new printer option 'quote-keywordish-symbols' controls how symbols
2385 are printed that have a colon as their first or last character. The
2386 default now is to only quote a symbol with #{...}# when the read
2387 option 'keywords' is not '#f'. Thus:
2389 guile> (define foo (string->symbol ":foo"))
2390 guile> (read-set! keywords #f)
2393 guile> (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
2396 guile> (print-set! quote-keywordish-symbols #f)
2400 ** 'while' now provides 'break' and 'continue'
2402 break and continue were previously bound in a while loop, but not
2403 documented, and continue didn't quite work properly. The undocumented
2404 parameter to break which gave a return value for the while has been
2407 ** 'call-with-current-continuation' is now also available under the name
2410 ** The module system now checks for duplicate bindings.
2412 The module system now can check for name conflicts among imported
2415 The behavior can be controlled by specifying one or more 'duplicates'
2416 handlers. For example, to make Guile return an error for every name
2419 (define-module (foo)
2424 The new default behavior of the module system when a name collision
2425 has been detected is to
2427 1. Give priority to bindings marked as a replacement.
2428 2. Issue a warning (different warning if overriding core binding).
2429 3. Give priority to the last encountered binding (this corresponds to
2432 If you want the old behavior back without replacements or warnings you
2435 (default-duplicate-binding-handler 'last)
2437 to your .guile init file.
2439 ** New define-module option: :replace
2441 :replace works as :export, but, in addition, marks the binding as a
2444 A typical example is `format' in (ice-9 format) which is a replacement
2445 for the core binding `format'.
2447 ** Adding prefixes to imported bindings in the module system
2449 There is now a new :use-module option :prefix. It can be used to add
2450 a prefix to all imported bindings.
2452 (define-module (foo)
2453 :use-module ((bar) :prefix bar:))
2455 will import all bindings exported from bar, but rename them by adding
2458 ** Conflicting generic functions can be automatically merged.
2460 When two imported bindings conflict and they are both generic
2461 functions, the two functions can now be merged automatically. This is
2462 activated with the 'duplicates' handler 'merge-generics'.
2464 ** New function: effective-version
2466 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
2467 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
2468 to the distribution" above.
2470 ** New threading functions: parallel, letpar, par-map, and friends
2472 These are convenient ways to run calculations in parallel in new
2473 threads. See "Parallel forms" in the manual for details.
2475 ** New function 'try-mutex'.
2477 This function will attempt to lock a mutex but will return immediately
2478 instead of blocking and indicate failure.
2480 ** Waiting on a condition variable can have a timeout.
2482 The function 'wait-condition-variable' now takes a third, optional
2483 argument that specifies the point in time where the waiting should be
2486 ** New function 'broadcast-condition-variable'.
2488 ** New functions 'all-threads' and 'current-thread'.
2490 ** Signals and system asyncs work better with threads.
2492 The function 'sigaction' now takes a fourth, optional, argument that
2493 specifies the thread that the handler should run in. When the
2494 argument is omitted, the handler will run in the thread that called
2497 Likewise, 'system-async-mark' takes a second, optional, argument that
2498 specifies the thread that the async should run in. When it is
2499 omitted, the async will run in the thread that called
2500 'system-async-mark'.
2502 C code can use the new functions scm_sigaction_for_thread and
2503 scm_system_async_mark_for_thread to pass the new thread argument.
2505 When a thread blocks on a mutex, a condition variable or is waiting
2506 for IO to be possible, it will still execute system asyncs. This can
2507 be used to interrupt such a thread by making it execute a 'throw', for
2510 ** The function 'system-async' is deprecated.
2512 You can now pass any zero-argument procedure to 'system-async-mark'.
2513 The function 'system-async' will just return its argument unchanged
2516 ** New functions 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' and
2517 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2519 The expression (call-with-blocked-asyncs PROC) will call PROC and will
2520 block execution of system asyncs for the current thread by one level
2521 while PROC runs. Likewise, call-with-unblocked-asyncs will call a
2522 procedure and will unblock the execution of system asyncs by one
2523 level for the current thread.
2525 Only system asyncs are affected by these functions.
2527 ** The functions 'mask-signals' and 'unmask-signals' are deprecated.
2529 Use 'call-with-blocked-asyncs' or 'call-with-unblocked-asyncs'
2530 instead. Those functions are easier to use correctly and can be
2533 ** New function 'unsetenv'.
2535 ** New macro 'define-syntax-public'.
2537 It works like 'define-syntax' and also exports the defined macro (but
2540 ** There is support for Infinity and NaNs.
2542 Following PLT Scheme, Guile can now work with infinite numbers, and
2545 There is new syntax for numbers: "+inf.0" (infinity), "-inf.0"
2546 (negative infinity), "+nan.0" (not-a-number), and "-nan.0" (same as
2547 "+nan.0"). These numbers are inexact and have no exact counterpart.
2549 Dividing by an inexact zero returns +inf.0 or -inf.0, depending on the
2550 sign of the dividend. The infinities are integers, and they answer #t
2551 for both 'even?' and 'odd?'. The +nan.0 value is not an integer and is
2552 not '=' to itself, but '+nan.0' is 'eqv?' to itself.
2563 ERROR: Numerical overflow
2565 Two new predicates 'inf?' and 'nan?' can be used to test for the
2568 ** Inexact zero can have a sign.
2570 Guile can now distinguish between plus and minus inexact zero, if your
2571 platform supports this, too. The two zeros are equal according to
2572 '=', but not according to 'eqv?'. For example
2583 ** Guile now has exact rationals.
2585 Guile can now represent fractions such as 1/3 exactly. Computing with
2586 them is also done exactly, of course:
2591 ** 'floor', 'ceiling', 'round' and 'truncate' now return exact numbers
2592 for exact arguments.
2594 For example: (floor 2) now returns an exact 2 where in the past it
2595 returned an inexact 2.0. Likewise, (floor 5/4) returns an exact 1.
2597 ** inexact->exact no longer returns only integers.
2599 Without exact rationals, the closest exact number was always an
2600 integer, but now inexact->exact returns the fraction that is exactly
2601 equal to a floating point number. For example:
2603 (inexact->exact 1.234)
2604 => 694680242521899/562949953421312
2606 When you want the old behavior, use 'round' explicitly:
2608 (inexact->exact (round 1.234))
2611 ** New function 'rationalize'.
2613 This function finds a simple fraction that is close to a given real
2614 number. For example (and compare with inexact->exact above):
2616 (rationalize (inexact->exact 1.234) 1/2000)
2619 Note that, as required by R5RS, rationalize returns only then an exact
2620 result when both its arguments are exact.
2622 ** 'odd?' and 'even?' work also for inexact integers.
2624 Previously, (odd? 1.0) would signal an error since only exact integers
2625 were recognized as integers. Now (odd? 1.0) returns #t, (odd? 2.0)
2626 returns #f and (odd? 1.5) signals an error.
2628 ** Guile now has uninterned symbols.
2630 The new function 'make-symbol' will return an uninterned symbol. This
2631 is a symbol that is unique and is guaranteed to remain unique.
2632 However, uninterned symbols can not yet be read back in.
2634 Use the new function 'symbol-interned?' to check whether a symbol is
2637 ** pretty-print has more options.
2639 The function pretty-print from the (ice-9 pretty-print) module can now
2640 also be invoked with keyword arguments that control things like
2641 maximum output width. See the manual for details.
2643 ** Variables have no longer a special behavior for `equal?'.
2645 Previously, comparing two variables with `equal?' would recursivly
2646 compare their values. This is no longer done. Variables are now only
2647 `equal?' if they are `eq?'.
2649 ** `(begin)' is now valid.
2651 You can now use an empty `begin' form. It will yield #<unspecified>
2652 when evaluated and simply be ignored in a definition context.
2654 ** Deprecated: procedure->macro
2656 Change your code to use 'define-macro' or r5rs macros. Also, be aware
2657 that macro expansion will not be done during evaluation, but prior to
2660 ** Soft ports now allow a `char-ready?' procedure
2662 The vector argument to `make-soft-port' can now have a length of
2663 either 5 or 6. (Previously the length had to be 5.) The optional 6th
2664 element is interpreted as an `input-waiting' thunk -- i.e. a thunk
2665 that returns the number of characters that can be read immediately
2666 without the soft port blocking.
2668 ** Deprecated: undefine
2670 There is no replacement for undefine.
2672 ** The functions make-keyword-from-dash-symbol and keyword-dash-symbol
2673 have been discouraged.
2675 They are relics from a time where a keyword like #:foo was used
2676 directly as a Tcl option "-foo" and thus keywords were internally
2677 stored as a symbol with a starting dash. We now store a symbol
2680 Use symbol->keyword and keyword->symbol instead.
2682 ** The `cheap' debug option is now obsolete
2684 Evaluator trap calls are now unconditionally "cheap" - in other words,
2685 they pass a debug object to the trap handler rather than a full
2686 continuation. The trap handler code can capture a full continuation
2687 by using `call-with-current-continuation' in the usual way, if it so
2690 The `cheap' option is retained for now so as not to break existing
2691 code which gets or sets it, but setting it now has no effect. It will
2692 be removed in the next major Guile release.
2694 ** Evaluator trap calls now support `tweaking'
2696 `Tweaking' means that the trap handler code can modify the Scheme
2697 expression that is about to be evaluated (in the case of an
2698 enter-frame trap) or the value that is being returned (in the case of
2699 an exit-frame trap). The trap handler code indicates that it wants to
2700 do this by returning a pair whose car is the symbol 'instead and whose
2701 cdr is the modified expression or return value.
2703 * Changes to the C interface
2705 ** The functions scm_hash_fn_remove_x and scm_hashx_remove_x no longer
2706 take a 'delete' function argument.
2708 This argument makes no sense since the delete function is used to
2709 remove a pair from an alist, and this must not be configurable.
2711 This is an incompatible change.
2713 ** The GH interface is now subject to the deprecation mechanism
2715 The GH interface has been deprecated for quite some time but now it is
2716 actually removed from Guile when it is configured with
2717 --disable-deprecated.
2719 See the manual "Transitioning away from GH" for more information.
2721 ** A new family of functions for converting between C values and
2722 Scheme values has been added.
2724 These functions follow a common naming scheme and are designed to be
2725 easier to use, thread-safe and more future-proof than the older
2728 - int scm_is_* (...)
2730 These are predicates that return a C boolean: 1 or 0. Instead of
2731 SCM_NFALSEP, you can now use scm_is_true, for example.
2733 - <type> scm_to_<type> (SCM val, ...)
2735 These are functions that convert a Scheme value into an appropriate
2736 C value. For example, you can use scm_to_int to safely convert from
2739 - SCM scm_from_<type> (<type> val, ...)
2741 These functions convert from a C type to a SCM value; for example,
2742 scm_from_int for ints.
2744 There is a huge number of these functions, for numbers, strings,
2745 symbols, vectors, etc. They are documented in the reference manual in
2746 the API section together with the types that they apply to.
2748 ** New functions for dealing with complex numbers in C have been added.
2750 The new functions are scm_c_make_rectangular, scm_c_make_polar,
2751 scm_c_real_part, scm_c_imag_part, scm_c_magnitude and scm_c_angle.
2752 They work like scm_make_rectangular etc but take or return doubles
2755 ** The function scm_make_complex has been discouraged.
2757 Use scm_c_make_rectangular instead.
2759 ** The INUM macros have been deprecated.
2761 A lot of code uses these macros to do general integer conversions,
2762 although the macros only work correctly with fixnums. Use the
2763 following alternatives.
2765 SCM_INUMP -> scm_is_integer or similar
2766 SCM_NINUMP -> !scm_is_integer or similar
2767 SCM_MAKINUM -> scm_from_int or similar
2768 SCM_INUM -> scm_to_int or similar
2770 SCM_VALIDATE_INUM_* -> Do not use these; scm_to_int, etc. will
2771 do the validating for you.
2773 ** The scm_num2<type> and scm_<type>2num functions and scm_make_real
2774 have been discouraged.
2776 Use the newer scm_to_<type> and scm_from_<type> functions instead for
2777 new code. The functions have been discouraged since they don't fit
2780 ** The 'boolean' macros SCM_FALSEP etc have been discouraged.
2782 They have strange names, especially SCM_NFALSEP, and SCM_BOOLP
2783 evaluates its argument twice. Use scm_is_true, etc. instead for new
2786 ** The macro SCM_EQ_P has been discouraged.
2788 Use scm_is_eq for new code, which fits better into the naming
2791 ** The macros SCM_CONSP, SCM_NCONSP, SCM_NULLP, and SCM_NNULLP have
2794 Use the function scm_is_pair or scm_is_null instead.
2796 ** The functions scm_round and scm_truncate have been deprecated and
2797 are now available as scm_c_round and scm_c_truncate, respectively.
2799 These functions occupy the names that scm_round_number and
2800 scm_truncate_number should have.
2802 ** The functions scm_c_string2str, scm_c_substring2str, and
2803 scm_c_symbol2str have been deprecated.
2805 Use scm_to_locale_stringbuf or similar instead, maybe together with
2808 ** New functions scm_c_make_string, scm_c_string_length,
2809 scm_c_string_ref, scm_c_string_set_x, scm_c_substring,
2810 scm_c_substring_shared, scm_c_substring_copy.
2812 These are like scm_make_string, scm_length, etc. but are slightly
2813 easier to use from C.
2815 ** The macros SCM_STRINGP, SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_STRING_LENGTH,
2816 SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, and SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH have been deprecated.
2818 They export too many assumptions about the implementation of strings
2819 and symbols that are no longer true in the presence of
2820 mutation-sharing substrings and when Guile switches to some form of
2823 When working with strings, it is often best to use the normal string
2824 functions provided by Guile, such as scm_c_string_ref,
2825 scm_c_string_set_x, scm_string_append, etc. Be sure to look in the
2826 manual since many more such functions are now provided than
2829 When you want to convert a SCM string to a C string, use the
2830 scm_to_locale_string function or similar instead. For symbols, use
2831 scm_symbol_to_string and then work with that string. Because of the
2832 new string representation, scm_symbol_to_string does not need to copy
2833 and is thus quite efficient.
2835 ** Some string, symbol and keyword functions have been discouraged.
2837 They don't fit into the uniform naming scheme and are not explicit
2838 about the character encoding.
2840 Replace according to the following table:
2842 scm_allocate_string -> scm_c_make_string
2843 scm_take_str -> scm_take_locale_stringn
2844 scm_take0str -> scm_take_locale_string
2845 scm_mem2string -> scm_from_locale_stringn
2846 scm_str2string -> scm_from_locale_string
2847 scm_makfrom0str -> scm_from_locale_string
2848 scm_mem2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symboln
2849 scm_mem2uninterned_symbol -> scm_from_locale_stringn + scm_make_symbol
2850 scm_str2symbol -> scm_from_locale_symbol
2852 SCM_SYMBOL_HASH -> scm_hashq
2853 SCM_SYMBOL_INTERNED_P -> scm_symbol_interned_p
2855 scm_c_make_keyword -> scm_from_locale_keyword
2857 ** The functions scm_keyword_to_symbol and sym_symbol_to_keyword are
2858 now also available to C code.
2860 ** SCM_KEYWORDP and SCM_KEYWORDSYM have been deprecated.
2862 Use scm_is_keyword and scm_keyword_to_symbol instead, but note that
2863 the latter returns the true name of the keyword, not the 'dash name',
2864 as SCM_KEYWORDSYM used to do.
2866 ** A new way to access arrays in a thread-safe and efficient way has
2869 See the manual, node "Accessing Arrays From C".
2871 ** The old uniform vector and bitvector implementations have been
2872 unceremoniously removed.
2874 This implementation exposed the details of the tagging system of
2875 Guile. Use the new C API explained in the manual in node "Uniform
2876 Numeric Vectors" and "Bit Vectors", respectively.
2878 The following macros are gone: SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE,
2879 SCM_UVECTOR_MAXLENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_UVECTOR_TAG,
2880 SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVECTOR_P, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE,
2881 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2882 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_MAKE_BITVECTOR_TAG,
2883 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_BITVEC_REF, SCM_BITVEC_SET,
2886 ** The macros dealing with vectors have been deprecated.
2888 Use the new functions scm_is_vector, scm_vector_elements,
2889 scm_vector_writable_elements, etc, or scm_is_simple_vector,
2890 SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_REF, SCM_SIMPLE_VECTOR_SET, etc instead. See the
2891 manual for more details.
2893 Deprecated are SCM_VECTORP, SCM_VELTS, SCM_VECTOR_MAX_LENGTH,
2894 SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_REF, SCM_VECTOR_SET, SCM_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2896 The following macros have been removed: SCM_VECTOR_BASE,
2897 SCM_SET_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_MAKE_VECTOR_TAG, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH,
2898 SCM_VELTS_AS_STACKITEMS, SCM_SETVELTS, SCM_GC_WRITABLE_VELTS.
2900 ** Some C functions and macros related to arrays have been deprecated.
2902 Migrate according to the following table:
2904 scm_make_uve -> scm_make_typed_array, scm_make_u8vector etc.
2905 scm_make_ra -> scm_make_array
2906 scm_shap2ra -> scm_make_array
2907 scm_cvref -> scm_c_generalized_vector_ref
2908 scm_ra_set_contp -> do not use
2909 scm_aind -> scm_array_handle_pos
2910 scm_raprin1 -> scm_display or scm_write
2912 SCM_ARRAYP -> scm_is_array
2913 SCM_ARRAY_NDIM -> scm_c_array_rank
2914 SCM_ARRAY_DIMS -> scm_array_handle_dims
2915 SCM_ARRAY_CONTP -> do not use
2916 SCM_ARRAY_MEM -> do not use
2917 SCM_ARRAY_V -> scm_array_handle_elements or similar
2918 SCM_ARRAY_BASE -> do not use
2920 ** SCM_CELL_WORD_LOC has been deprecated.
2922 Use the new macro SCM_CELL_OBJECT_LOC instead, which returns a pointer
2923 to a SCM, as opposed to a pointer to a scm_t_bits.
2925 This was done to allow the correct use of pointers into the Scheme
2926 heap. Previously, the heap words were of type scm_t_bits and local
2927 variables and function arguments were of type SCM, making it
2928 non-standards-conformant to have a pointer that can point to both.
2930 ** New macros SCM_SMOB_DATA_2, SCM_SMOB_DATA_3, etc.
2932 These macros should be used instead of SCM_CELL_WORD_2/3 to access the
2933 second and third words of double smobs. Likewise for
2934 SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_2 and SCM_SET_SMOB_DATA_3.
2936 Also, there is SCM_SMOB_FLAGS and SCM_SET_SMOB_FLAGS that should be
2937 used to get and set the 16 exra bits in the zeroth word of a smob.
2939 And finally, there is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT and SCM_SMOB_SET_OBJECT for
2940 accesing the first immediate word of a smob as a SCM value, and there
2941 is SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_LOC for getting a pointer to the first immediate
2942 smob word. Like wise for SCM_SMOB_OBJECT_2, etc.
2944 ** New way to deal with non-local exits and re-entries.
2946 There is a new set of functions that essentially do what
2947 scm_internal_dynamic_wind does, but in a way that is more convenient
2948 for C code in some situations. Here is a quick example of how to
2949 prevent a potential memory leak:
2956 scm_dynwind_begin (0);
2958 mem = scm_malloc (100);
2959 scm_dynwind_unwind_handler (free, mem, SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY);
2961 /* MEM would leak if BAR throws an error.
2962 SCM_DYNWIND_UNWIND_HANDLER frees it nevertheless.
2969 /* Because of SCM_F_WIND_EXPLICITLY, MEM will be freed by
2970 SCM_DYNWIND_END as well.
2974 For full documentation, see the node "Dynamic Wind" in the manual.
2976 ** New function scm_dynwind_free
2978 This function calls 'free' on a given pointer when a dynwind context
2979 is left. Thus the call to scm_dynwind_unwind_handler above could be
2980 replaced with simply scm_dynwind_free (mem).
2982 ** New functions scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
2983 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs
2985 Like scm_call_with_blocked_asyncs etc. but for C functions.
2987 ** New functions scm_dynwind_block_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs
2989 In addition to scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs you can now also use
2990 scm_dynwind_block_asyncs in a 'dynwind context' (see above). Likewise for
2991 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs and scm_dynwind_unblock_asyncs.
2993 ** The macros SCM_DEFER_INTS, SCM_ALLOW_INTS, SCM_REDEFER_INTS,
2994 SCM_REALLOW_INTS have been deprecated.
2996 They do no longer fulfill their original role of blocking signal
2997 delivery. Depending on what you want to achieve, replace a pair of
2998 SCM_DEFER_INTS and SCM_ALLOW_INTS with a dynwind context that locks a
2999 mutex, blocks asyncs, or both. See node "Critical Sections" in the
3002 ** The value 'scm_mask_ints' is no longer writable.
3004 Previously, you could set scm_mask_ints directly. This is no longer
3005 possible. Use scm_c_call_with_blocked_asyncs and
3006 scm_c_call_with_unblocked_asyncs instead.
3008 ** New way to temporarily set the current input, output or error ports
3010 C code can now use scm_dynwind_current_<foo>_port in a 'dynwind
3011 context' (see above). <foo> is one of "input", "output" or "error".
3013 ** New way to temporarily set fluids
3015 C code can now use scm_dynwind_fluid in a 'dynwind context' (see
3016 above) to temporarily set the value of a fluid.
3018 ** New types scm_t_intmax and scm_t_uintmax.
3020 On platforms that have them, these types are identical to intmax_t and
3021 uintmax_t, respectively. On other platforms, they are identical to
3022 the largest integer types that Guile knows about.
3024 ** The functions scm_unmemocopy and scm_unmemoize have been removed.
3026 You should not have used them.
3028 ** Many public #defines with generic names have been made private.
3030 #defines with generic names like HAVE_FOO or SIZEOF_FOO have been made
3031 private or renamed with a more suitable public name.
3033 ** The macro SCM_TYP16S has been deprecated.
3035 This macro is not intended for public use.
3037 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_INEXACTP has been deprecated.
3039 Use scm_is_true (scm_inexact_p (...)) instead.
3041 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_REALP has been deprecated.
3043 Use scm_is_real instead.
3045 ** The macro SCM_SLOPPY_COMPLEXP has been deprecated.
3047 Use scm_is_complex instead.
3049 ** Some preprocessor defines have been deprecated.
3051 These defines indicated whether a certain feature was present in Guile
3052 or not. Going forward, assume that the features are always present.
3054 The macros are: USE_THREADS, GUILE_ISELECT, READER_EXTENSIONS,
3055 DEBUG_EXTENSIONS, DYNAMIC_LINKING.
3057 The following macros have been removed completely: MEMOIZE_LOCALS,
3058 SCM_RECKLESS, SCM_CAUTIOUS.
3060 ** The preprocessor define STACK_DIRECTION has been deprecated.
3062 There should be no need to know about the stack direction for ordinary
3065 ** New function: scm_effective_version
3067 Returns the "effective" version number. This is just the normal full
3068 version string without the final micro-version number. See "Changes
3069 to the distribution" above.
3071 ** The function scm_call_with_new_thread has a new prototype.
3073 Instead of taking a list with the thunk and handler, these two
3074 arguments are now passed directly:
3076 SCM scm_call_with_new_thread (SCM thunk, SCM handler);
3078 This is an incompatible change.
3080 ** New snarfer macro SCM_DEFINE_PUBLIC.
3082 This is like SCM_DEFINE, but also calls scm_c_export for the defined
3083 function in the init section.
3085 ** The snarfer macro SCM_SNARF_INIT is now officially supported.
3087 ** Garbage collector rewrite.
3089 The garbage collector is cleaned up a lot, and now uses lazy
3090 sweeping. This is reflected in the output of (gc-stats); since cells
3091 are being freed when they are allocated, the cells-allocated field
3092 stays roughly constant.
3094 For malloc related triggers, the behavior is changed. It uses the same
3095 heuristic as the cell-triggered collections. It may be tuned with the
3096 environment variables GUILE_MIN_YIELD_MALLOC. This is the percentage
3097 for minimum yield of malloc related triggers. The default is 40.
3098 GUILE_INIT_MALLOC_LIMIT sets the initial trigger for doing a GC. The
3101 Debugging operations for the freelist have been deprecated, along with
3102 the C variables that control garbage collection. The environment
3103 variables GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE, GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2,
3104 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1, and GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2 should be used.
3106 For understanding the memory usage of a GUILE program, the routine
3107 gc-live-object-stats returns an alist containing the number of live
3108 objects for every type.
3111 ** The function scm_definedp has been renamed to scm_defined_p
3113 The name scm_definedp is deprecated.
3115 ** The struct scm_cell type has been renamed to scm_t_cell
3117 This is in accordance to Guile's naming scheme for types. Note that
3118 the name scm_cell is now used for a function that allocates and
3119 initializes a new cell (see below).
3121 ** New functions for memory management
3123 A new set of functions for memory management has been added since the
3124 old way (scm_must_malloc, scm_must_free, etc) was error prone and
3125 indeed, Guile itself contained some long standing bugs that could
3126 cause aborts in long running programs.
3128 The new functions are more symmetrical and do not need cooperation
3129 from smob free routines, among other improvements.
3131 The new functions are scm_malloc, scm_realloc, scm_calloc, scm_strdup,
3132 scm_strndup, scm_gc_malloc, scm_gc_calloc, scm_gc_realloc,
3133 scm_gc_free, scm_gc_register_collectable_memory, and
3134 scm_gc_unregister_collectable_memory. Refer to the manual for more
3135 details and for upgrading instructions.
3137 The old functions for memory management have been deprecated. They
3138 are: scm_must_malloc, scm_must_realloc, scm_must_free,
3139 scm_must_strdup, scm_must_strndup, scm_done_malloc, scm_done_free.
3141 ** Declarations of exported features are marked with SCM_API.
3143 Every declaration of a feature that belongs to the exported Guile API
3144 has been marked by adding the macro "SCM_API" to the start of the
3145 declaration. This macro can expand into different things, the most
3146 common of which is just "extern" for Unix platforms. On Win32, it can
3147 be used to control which symbols are exported from a DLL.
3149 If you `#define SCM_IMPORT' before including <libguile.h>, SCM_API
3150 will expand into "__declspec (dllimport) extern", which is needed for
3151 linking to the Guile DLL in Windows.
3153 There are also SCM_RL_IMPORT, SCM_SRFI1314_IMPORT, and
3154 SCM_SRFI4_IMPORT, for the corresponding libraries.
3156 ** SCM_NEWCELL and SCM_NEWCELL2 have been deprecated.
3158 Use the new functions scm_cell and scm_double_cell instead. The old
3159 macros had problems because with them allocation and initialization
3160 was separated and the GC could sometimes observe half initialized
3161 cells. Only careful coding by the user of SCM_NEWCELL and
3162 SCM_NEWCELL2 could make this safe and efficient.
3164 ** CHECK_ENTRY, CHECK_APPLY and CHECK_EXIT have been deprecated.
3166 Use the variables scm_check_entry_p, scm_check_apply_p and scm_check_exit_p
3169 ** SRCBRKP has been deprecated.
3171 Use scm_c_source_property_breakpoint_p instead.
3173 ** Deprecated: scm_makmacro
3175 Change your code to use either scm_makmmacro or to define macros in
3176 Scheme, using 'define-macro'.
3178 ** New function scm_c_port_for_each.
3180 This function is like scm_port_for_each but takes a pointer to a C
3181 function as the callback instead of a SCM value.
3183 ** The names scm_internal_select, scm_thread_sleep, and
3184 scm_thread_usleep have been discouraged.
3186 Use scm_std_select, scm_std_sleep, scm_std_usleep instead.
3188 ** The GC can no longer be blocked.
3190 The global flags scm_gc_heap_lock and scm_block_gc have been removed.
3191 The GC can now run (partially) concurrently with other code and thus
3192 blocking it is not well defined.
3194 ** Many definitions have been removed that were previously deprecated.
3196 scm_lisp_nil, scm_lisp_t, s_nil_ify, scm_m_nil_ify, s_t_ify,
3197 scm_m_t_ify, s_0_cond, scm_m_0_cond, s_0_ify, scm_m_0_ify, s_1_ify,
3198 scm_m_1_ify, scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2,
3199 scm_tc16_allocated, SCM_SET_SYMBOL_HASH, SCM_IM_NIL_IFY, SCM_IM_T_IFY,
3200 SCM_IM_0_COND, SCM_IM_0_IFY, SCM_IM_1_IFY, SCM_GC_SET_ALLOCATED,
3201 scm_debug_newcell, scm_debug_newcell2, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL, SCM_INT_SIGNAL,
3202 SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL, SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL,
3203 SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD, SCM_ORD_SIG,
3204 SCM_NUM_SIGS, scm_top_level_lookup_closure_var,
3205 *top-level-lookup-closure*, scm_system_transformer, scm_eval_3,
3206 scm_eval2, root_module_lookup_closure, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
3207 SCM_RWSTRINGP, scm_read_only_string_p, scm_make_shared_substring,
3208 scm_tc7_substring, sym_huh, SCM_VARVCELL, SCM_UDVARIABLEP,
3209 SCM_DEFVARIABLEP, scm_mkbig, scm_big2inum, scm_adjbig, scm_normbig,
3210 scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl, SCM_FIXNUM_BIT,
3211 SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_SLOPPY_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET,
3212 SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_ROLENGTH,
3213 SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
3214 scm_sym2vcell, scm_intern, scm_intern0, scm_sysintern, scm_sysintern0,
3215 scm_sysintern0_no_module_lookup, scm_init_symbols_deprecated,
3216 scm_vector_set_length_x, scm_contregs, scm_debug_info,
3217 scm_debug_frame, SCM_DSIDEVAL, SCM_CONST_LONG, SCM_VCELL,
3218 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL, SCM_VCELL_INIT, SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL_INIT,
3219 SCM_HUGE_LENGTH, SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING,
3220 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY, SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY,
3221 SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, DIGITS, scm_small_istr2int, scm_istr2int,
3222 scm_istr2flo, scm_istring2number, scm_istr2int, scm_istr2flo,
3223 scm_istring2number, scm_vtable_index_vcell, scm_si_vcell, SCM_ECONSP,
3224 SCM_NECONSP, SCM_GLOC_VAR, SCM_GLOC_VAL, SCM_GLOC_SET_VAL,
3225 SCM_GLOC_VAL_LOC, scm_make_gloc, scm_gloc_p, scm_tc16_variable,
3226 SCM_CHARS, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH.
3228 * Changes to bundled modules
3232 Using the (ice-9 debug) module no longer automatically switches Guile
3233 to use the debugging evaluator. If you want to switch to the
3234 debugging evaluator (which is needed for backtrace information if you
3235 hit an error), please add an explicit "(debug-enable 'debug)" to your
3236 code just after the code to use (ice-9 debug).
3239 Changes since Guile 1.4:
3241 * Changes to the distribution
3243 ** A top-level TODO file is included.
3245 ** Guile now uses a versioning scheme similar to that of the Linux kernel.
3247 Guile now always uses three numbers to represent the version,
3248 i.e. "1.6.5". The first number, 1, is the major version number, the
3249 second number, 6, is the minor version number, and the third number,
3250 5, is the micro version number. Changes in major version number
3251 indicate major changes in Guile.
3253 Minor version numbers that are even denote stable releases, and odd
3254 minor version numbers denote development versions (which may be
3255 unstable). The micro version number indicates a minor sub-revision of
3256 a given MAJOR.MINOR release.
3258 In keeping with the new scheme, (minor-version) and scm_minor_version
3259 no longer return everything but the major version number. They now
3260 just return the minor version number. Two new functions
3261 (micro-version) and scm_micro_version have been added to report the
3262 micro version number.
3264 In addition, ./GUILE-VERSION now defines GUILE_MICRO_VERSION.
3266 ** New preprocessor definitions are available for checking versions.
3268 version.h now #defines SCM_MAJOR_VERSION, SCM_MINOR_VERSION, and
3269 SCM_MICRO_VERSION to the appropriate integer values.
3271 ** Guile now actively warns about deprecated features.
3273 The new configure option `--enable-deprecated=LEVEL' and the
3274 environment variable GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATED control this mechanism.
3275 See INSTALL and README for more information.
3277 ** Guile is much more likely to work on 64-bit architectures.
3279 Guile now compiles and passes "make check" with only two UNRESOLVED GC
3280 cases on Alpha and ia64 based machines now. Thanks to John Goerzen
3281 for the use of a test machine, and thanks to Stefan Jahn for ia64
3284 ** New functions: setitimer and getitimer.
3286 These implement a fairly direct interface to the libc functions of the
3289 ** The #. reader extension is now disabled by default.
3291 For safety reasons, #. evaluation is disabled by default. To
3292 re-enable it, set the fluid read-eval? to #t. For example:
3294 (fluid-set! read-eval? #t)
3296 but make sure you realize the potential security risks involved. With
3297 read-eval? enabled, reading a data file from an untrusted source can
3300 ** New SRFI modules have been added:
3302 SRFI-0 `cond-expand' is now supported in Guile, without requiring
3305 (srfi srfi-1) is a library containing many useful pair- and list-processing
3308 (srfi srfi-2) exports and-let*.
3310 (srfi srfi-4) implements homogeneous numeric vector datatypes.
3312 (srfi srfi-6) is a dummy module for now, since guile already provides
3313 all of the srfi-6 procedures by default: open-input-string,
3314 open-output-string, get-output-string.
3316 (srfi srfi-8) exports receive.
3318 (srfi srfi-9) exports define-record-type.
3320 (srfi srfi-10) exports define-reader-ctor and implements the reader
3323 (srfi srfi-11) exports let-values and let*-values.
3325 (srfi srfi-13) implements the SRFI String Library.
3327 (srfi srfi-14) implements the SRFI Character-Set Library.
3329 (srfi srfi-17) implements setter and getter-with-setter and redefines
3330 some accessor procedures as procedures with getters. (such as car,
3331 cdr, vector-ref etc.)
3333 (srfi srfi-19) implements the SRFI Time/Date Library.
3335 ** New scripts / "executable modules"
3337 Subdirectory "scripts" contains Scheme modules that are packaged to
3338 also be executable as scripts. At this time, these scripts are available:
3347 See README there for more info.
3349 These scripts can be invoked from the shell with the new program
3350 "guile-tools", which keeps track of installation directory for you.
3353 $ guile-tools display-commentary srfi/*.scm
3355 guile-tools is copied to the standard $bindir on "make install".
3357 ** New module (ice-9 stack-catch):
3359 stack-catch is like catch, but saves the current state of the stack in
3360 the fluid the-last-stack. This fluid can be useful when using the
3361 debugger and when re-throwing an error.
3363 ** The module (ice-9 and-let*) has been renamed to (ice-9 and-let-star)
3365 This has been done to prevent problems on lesser operating systems
3366 that can't tolerate `*'s in file names. The exported macro continues
3367 to be named `and-let*', of course.
3369 On systems that support it, there is also a compatibility module named
3370 (ice-9 and-let*). It will go away in the next release.
3372 ** New modules (oop goops) etc.:
3375 (oop goops describe)
3377 (oop goops active-slot)
3378 (oop goops composite-slot)
3380 The Guile Object Oriented Programming System (GOOPS) has been
3381 integrated into Guile. For further information, consult the GOOPS
3382 manual and tutorial in the `doc' directory.
3384 ** New module (ice-9 rdelim).
3386 This exports the following procedures which were previously defined
3387 in the default environment:
3389 read-line read-line! read-delimited read-delimited! %read-delimited!
3390 %read-line write-line
3392 For backwards compatibility the definitions are still imported into the
3393 default environment in this version of Guile. However you should add:
3395 (use-modules (ice-9 rdelim))
3397 to any program which uses the definitions, since this may change in
3400 Alternatively, if guile-scsh is installed, the (scsh rdelim) module
3401 can be used for similar functionality.
3403 ** New module (ice-9 rw)
3405 This is a subset of the (scsh rw) module from guile-scsh. Currently
3406 it defines two procedures:
3408 *** New function: read-string!/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3410 Read characters from a port or file descriptor into a string STR.
3411 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3412 fport. This procedure is scsh-compatible and can efficiently read
3415 *** New function: write-string/partial str [port_or_fdes [start [end]]]
3417 Write characters from a string STR to a port or file descriptor.
3418 A port must have an underlying file descriptor -- a so-called
3419 fport. This procedure is mostly compatible and can efficiently
3420 write large strings.
3422 ** New module (ice-9 match)
3424 This module includes Andrew K. Wright's pattern matcher. See
3425 ice-9/match.scm for brief description or
3427 http://www.star-lab.com/wright/code.html
3429 for complete documentation.
3431 ** New module (ice-9 buffered-input)
3433 This module provides procedures to construct an input port from an
3434 underlying source of input that reads and returns its input in chunks.
3435 The underlying input source is a Scheme procedure, specified by the
3436 caller, which the port invokes whenever it needs more input.
3438 This is useful when building an input port whose back end is Readline
3439 or a UI element such as the GtkEntry widget.
3443 The reference and tutorial documentation that was previously
3444 distributed separately, as `guile-doc', is now included in the core
3445 Guile distribution. The documentation consists of the following
3448 - The Guile Tutorial (guile-tut.texi) contains a tutorial introduction
3451 - The Guile Reference Manual (guile.texi) contains (or is intended to
3452 contain) reference documentation on all aspects of Guile.
3454 - The GOOPS Manual (goops.texi) contains both tutorial-style and
3455 reference documentation for using GOOPS, Guile's Object Oriented
3458 - The Revised^5 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme
3461 See the README file in the `doc' directory for more details.
3463 ** There are a couple of examples in the examples/ directory now.
3465 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
3467 ** New command line option `--use-srfi'
3469 Using this option, SRFI modules can be loaded on startup and be
3470 available right from the beginning. This makes programming portable
3471 Scheme programs easier.
3473 The option `--use-srfi' expects a comma-separated list of numbers,
3474 each representing a SRFI number to be loaded into the interpreter
3475 before starting evaluating a script file or the REPL. Additionally,
3476 the feature identifier for the loaded SRFIs is recognized by
3477 `cond-expand' when using this option.
3480 $ guile --use-srfi=8,13
3481 guile> (receive (x z) (values 1 2) (+ 1 2))
3483 guile> (string-pad "bla" 20)
3486 ** Guile now always starts up in the `(guile-user)' module.
3488 Previously, scripts executed via the `-s' option would run in the
3489 `(guile)' module and the repl would run in the `(guile-user)' module.
3490 Now every user action takes place in the `(guile-user)' module by
3493 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
3495 ** Character classifiers work for non-ASCII characters.
3497 The predicates `char-alphabetic?', `char-numeric?',
3498 `char-whitespace?', `char-lower?', `char-upper?' and `char-is-both?'
3499 no longer check whether their arguments are ASCII characters.
3500 Previously, a character would only be considered alphabetic when it
3501 was also ASCII, for example.
3503 ** Previously deprecated Scheme functions have been removed:
3505 tag - no replacement.
3506 fseek - replaced by seek.
3507 list* - replaced by cons*.
3509 ** It's now possible to create modules with controlled environments
3513 (use-modules (ice-9 safe))
3514 (define m (make-safe-module))
3515 ;;; m will now be a module containing only a safe subset of R5RS
3516 (eval '(+ 1 2) m) --> 3
3517 (eval 'load m) --> ERROR: Unbound variable: load
3519 ** Evaluation of "()", the empty list, is now an error.
3521 Previously, the expression "()" evaluated to the empty list. This has
3522 been changed to signal a "missing expression" error. The correct way
3523 to write the empty list as a literal constant is to use quote: "'()".
3525 ** New concept of `Guile Extensions'.
3527 A Guile Extension is just a ordinary shared library that can be linked
3528 at run-time. We found it advantageous to give this simple concept a
3529 dedicated name to distinguish the issues related to shared libraries
3530 from the issues related to the module system.
3532 *** New function: load-extension
3534 Executing (load-extension lib init) is mostly equivalent to
3536 (dynamic-call init (dynamic-link lib))
3538 except when scm_register_extension has been called previously.
3539 Whenever appropriate, you should use `load-extension' instead of
3540 dynamic-link and dynamic-call.
3542 *** New C function: scm_c_register_extension
3544 This function registers a initialization function for use by
3545 `load-extension'. Use it when you don't want specific extensions to
3546 be loaded as shared libraries (for example on platforms that don't
3547 support dynamic linking).
3549 ** Auto-loading of compiled-code modules is deprecated.
3551 Guile used to be able to automatically find and link a shared
3552 library to satisfy requests for a module. For example, the module
3553 `(foo bar)' could be implemented by placing a shared library named
3554 "foo/libbar.so" (or with a different extension) in a directory on the
3557 This has been found to be too tricky, and is no longer supported. The
3558 shared libraries are now called "extensions". You should now write a
3559 small Scheme file that calls `load-extension' to load the shared
3560 library and initialize it explicitly.
3562 The shared libraries themselves should be installed in the usual
3563 places for shared libraries, with names like "libguile-foo-bar".
3565 For example, place this into a file "foo/bar.scm"
3567 (define-module (foo bar))
3569 (load-extension "libguile-foo-bar" "foobar_init")
3571 ** Backward incompatible change: eval EXP ENVIRONMENT-SPECIFIER
3573 `eval' is now R5RS, that is it takes two arguments.
3574 The second argument is an environment specifier, i.e. either
3576 (scheme-report-environment 5)
3577 (null-environment 5)
3578 (interaction-environment)
3584 ** The module system has been made more disciplined.
3586 The function `eval' will save and restore the current module around
3587 the evaluation of the specified expression. While this expression is
3588 evaluated, `(current-module)' will now return the right module, which
3589 is the module specified as the second argument to `eval'.
3591 A consequence of this change is that `eval' is not particularly
3592 useful when you want allow the evaluated code to change what module is
3593 designated as the current module and have this change persist from one
3594 call to `eval' to the next. The read-eval-print-loop is an example
3595 where `eval' is now inadequate. To compensate, there is a new
3596 function `primitive-eval' that does not take a module specifier and
3597 that does not save/restore the current module. You should use this
3598 function together with `set-current-module', `current-module', etc
3599 when you want to have more control over the state that is carried from
3600 one eval to the next.
3602 Additionally, it has been made sure that forms that are evaluated at
3603 the top level are always evaluated with respect to the current module.
3604 Previously, subforms of top-level forms such as `begin', `case',
3605 etc. did not respect changes to the current module although these
3606 subforms are at the top-level as well.
3608 To prevent strange behavior, the forms `define-module',
3609 `use-modules', `use-syntax', and `export' have been restricted to only
3610 work on the top level. The forms `define-public' and
3611 `defmacro-public' only export the new binding on the top level. They
3612 behave just like `define' and `defmacro', respectively, when they are
3613 used in a lexical environment.
3615 Also, `export' will no longer silently re-export bindings imported
3616 from a used module. It will emit a `deprecation' warning and will
3617 cease to perform any re-export in the next version. If you actually
3618 want to re-export bindings, use the new `re-export' in place of
3619 `export'. The new `re-export' will not make copies of variables when
3620 rexporting them, as `export' did wrongly.
3622 ** Module system now allows selection and renaming of imported bindings
3624 Previously, when using `use-modules' or the `#:use-module' clause in
3625 the `define-module' form, all the bindings (association of symbols to
3626 values) for imported modules were added to the "current module" on an
3627 as-is basis. This has been changed to allow finer control through two
3628 new facilities: selection and renaming.
3630 You can now select which of the imported module's bindings are to be
3631 visible in the current module by using the `:select' clause. This
3632 clause also can be used to rename individual bindings. For example:
3634 ;; import all bindings no questions asked
3635 (use-modules (ice-9 common-list))
3637 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them;
3638 ;; the current module sees: every some zonk-y zonk-n
3639 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3641 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3642 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))))
3644 You can also programmatically rename all selected bindings using the
3645 `:renamer' clause, which specifies a proc that takes a symbol and
3646 returns another symbol. Because it is common practice to use a prefix,
3647 we now provide the convenience procedure `symbol-prefix-proc'. For
3650 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3651 ;; and all four w/ prefix "CL:";
3652 ;; the current module sees: CL:every CL:some CL:zonk-y CL:zonk-n
3653 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3655 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3656 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3657 :renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'CL:)))
3659 ;; import four bindings, renaming two of them specifically,
3660 ;; and all four by upcasing.
3661 ;; the current module sees: EVERY SOME ZONK-Y ZONK-N
3662 (define (upcase-symbol sym)
3663 (string->symbol (string-upcase (symbol->string sym))))
3665 (use-modules ((ice-9 common-list)
3667 (remove-if . zonk-y)
3668 (remove-if-not . zonk-n))
3669 :renamer upcase-symbol))
3671 Note that programmatic renaming is done *after* individual renaming.
3672 Also, the above examples show `use-modules', but the same facilities are
3673 available for the `#:use-module' clause of `define-module'.
3675 See manual for more info.
3677 ** The semantics of guardians have changed.
3679 The changes are for the most part compatible. An important criterion
3680 was to keep the typical usage of guardians as simple as before, but to
3681 make the semantics safer and (as a result) more useful.
3683 *** All objects returned from guardians are now properly alive.
3685 It is now guaranteed that any object referenced by an object returned
3686 from a guardian is alive. It's now impossible for a guardian to
3687 return a "contained" object before its "containing" object.
3689 One incompatible (but probably not very important) change resulting
3690 from this is that it is no longer possible to guard objects that
3691 indirectly reference themselves (i.e. are parts of cycles). If you do
3692 so accidentally, you'll get a warning.
3694 *** There are now two types of guardians: greedy and sharing.
3696 If you call (make-guardian #t) or just (make-guardian), you'll get a
3697 greedy guardian, and for (make-guardian #f) a sharing guardian.
3699 Greedy guardians are the default because they are more "defensive".
3700 You can only greedily guard an object once. If you guard an object
3701 more than once, once in a greedy guardian and the rest of times in
3702 sharing guardians, then it is guaranteed that the object won't be
3703 returned from sharing guardians as long as it is greedily guarded
3706 Guardians returned by calls to `make-guardian' can now take one more
3707 optional parameter, which says whether to throw an error in case an
3708 attempt is made to greedily guard an object that is already greedily
3709 guarded. The default is true, i.e. throw an error. If the parameter
3710 is false, the guardian invocation returns #t if guarding was
3711 successful and #f if it wasn't.
3713 Also, since greedy guarding is, in effect, a side-effecting operation
3714 on objects, a new function is introduced: `destroy-guardian!'.
3715 Invoking this function on a guardian renders it unoperative and, if
3716 the guardian is greedy, clears the "greedily guarded" property of the
3717 objects that were guarded by it, thus undoing the side effect.
3719 Note that all this hair is hardly very important, since guardian
3720 objects are usually permanent.
3722 ** Continuations created by call-with-current-continuation now accept
3723 any number of arguments, as required by R5RS.
3725 ** New function `issue-deprecation-warning'
3727 This function is used to display the deprecation messages that are
3728 controlled by GUILE_WARN_DEPRECATION as explained in the README.
3731 (issue-deprecation-warning "`id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.")
3735 ;; `id' is deprecated. Use `identity' instead.
3740 ** New syntax `begin-deprecated'
3742 When deprecated features are included (as determined by the configure
3743 option --enable-deprecated), `begin-deprecated' is identical to
3744 `begin'. When deprecated features are excluded, it always evaluates
3745 to `#f', ignoring the body forms.
3747 ** New function `make-object-property'
3749 This function returns a new `procedure with setter' P that can be used
3750 to attach a property to objects. When calling P as
3754 where `obj' is any kind of object, it attaches `val' to `obj' in such
3755 a way that it can be retrieved by calling P as
3759 This function will replace procedure properties, symbol properties and
3760 source properties eventually.
3762 ** Module (ice-9 optargs) now uses keywords instead of `#&'.
3764 Instead of #&optional, #&key, etc you should now use #:optional,
3765 #:key, etc. Since #:optional is a keyword, you can write it as just
3766 :optional when (read-set! keywords 'prefix) is active.
3768 The old reader syntax `#&' is still supported, but deprecated. It
3769 will be removed in the next release.
3771 ** New define-module option: pure
3773 Tells the module system not to include any bindings from the root
3778 (define-module (totally-empty-module)
3781 ** New define-module option: export NAME1 ...
3783 Export names NAME1 ...
3785 This option is required if you want to be able to export bindings from
3786 a module which doesn't import one of `define-public' or `export'.
3790 (define-module (foo)
3792 :use-module (ice-9 r5rs)
3795 ;;; Note that we're pure R5RS below this point!
3800 ** New function: object->string OBJ
3802 Return a Scheme string obtained by printing a given object.
3804 ** New function: port? X
3806 Returns a boolean indicating whether X is a port. Equivalent to
3807 `(or (input-port? X) (output-port? X))'.
3809 ** New function: file-port?
3811 Determines whether a given object is a port that is related to a file.
3813 ** New function: port-for-each proc
3815 Apply PROC to each port in the Guile port table in turn. The return
3816 value is unspecified. More specifically, PROC is applied exactly once
3817 to every port that exists in the system at the time PORT-FOR-EACH is
3818 invoked. Changes to the port table while PORT-FOR-EACH is running
3819 have no effect as far as PORT-FOR-EACH is concerned.
3821 ** New function: dup2 oldfd newfd
3823 A simple wrapper for the `dup2' system call. Copies the file
3824 descriptor OLDFD to descriptor number NEWFD, replacing the
3825 previous meaning of NEWFD. Both OLDFD and NEWFD must be integers.
3826 Unlike for dup->fdes or primitive-move->fdes, no attempt is made
3827 to move away ports which are using NEWFD. The return value is
3830 ** New function: close-fdes fd
3832 A simple wrapper for the `close' system call. Close file
3833 descriptor FD, which must be an integer. Unlike close (*note
3834 close: Ports and File Descriptors.), the file descriptor will be
3835 closed even if a port is using it. The return value is
3838 ** New function: crypt password salt
3840 Encrypts `password' using the standard unix password encryption
3843 ** New function: chroot path
3845 Change the root directory of the running process to `path'.
3847 ** New functions: getlogin, cuserid
3849 Return the login name or the user name of the current effective user
3852 ** New functions: getpriority which who, setpriority which who prio
3854 Get or set the priority of the running process.
3856 ** New function: getpass prompt
3858 Read a password from the terminal, first displaying `prompt' and
3861 ** New function: flock file operation
3863 Set/remove an advisory shared or exclusive lock on `file'.
3865 ** New functions: sethostname name, gethostname
3867 Set or get the hostname of the machine the current process is running
3870 ** New function: mkstemp! tmpl
3872 mkstemp creates a new unique file in the file system and returns a
3873 new buffered port open for reading and writing to the file. TMPL
3874 is a string specifying where the file should be created: it must
3875 end with `XXXXXX' and will be changed in place to return the name
3876 of the temporary file.
3878 ** New function: open-input-string string
3880 Return an input string port which delivers the characters from
3881 `string'. This procedure, together with `open-output-string' and
3882 `get-output-string' implements SRFI-6.
3884 ** New function: open-output-string
3886 Return an output string port which collects all data written to it.
3887 The data can then be retrieved by `get-output-string'.
3889 ** New function: get-output-string
3891 Return the contents of an output string port.
3893 ** New function: identity
3895 Return the argument.
3897 ** socket, connect, accept etc., now have support for IPv6. IPv6 addresses
3898 are represented in Scheme as integers with normal host byte ordering.
3900 ** New function: inet-pton family address
3902 Convert a printable string network address into an integer. Note that
3903 unlike the C version of this function, the result is an integer with
3904 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3907 (inet-pton AF_INET "127.0.0.1") => 2130706433
3908 (inet-pton AF_INET6 "::1") => 1
3910 ** New function: inet-ntop family address
3912 Convert an integer network address into a printable string. Note that
3913 unlike the C version of this function, the input is an integer with
3914 normal host byte ordering. FAMILY can be `AF_INET' or `AF_INET6'.
3917 (inet-ntop AF_INET 2130706433) => "127.0.0.1"
3918 (inet-ntop AF_INET6 (- (expt 2 128) 1)) =>
3919 ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff
3923 Use `identity' instead.
3929 ** Deprecated: return-it
3933 ** Deprecated: string-character-length
3935 Use `string-length' instead.
3937 ** Deprecated: flags
3939 Use `logior' instead.
3941 ** Deprecated: close-all-ports-except.
3943 This was intended for closing ports in a child process after a fork,
3944 but it has the undesirable side effect of flushing buffers.
3945 port-for-each is more flexible.
3947 ** The (ice-9 popen) module now attempts to set up file descriptors in
3948 the child process from the current Scheme ports, instead of using the
3949 current values of file descriptors 0, 1, and 2 in the parent process.
3951 ** Removed function: builtin-weak-bindings
3953 There is no such concept as a weak binding any more.
3955 ** Removed constants: bignum-radix, scm-line-incrementors
3957 ** define-method: New syntax mandatory.
3959 The new method syntax is now mandatory:
3961 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ...) BODY ...)
3962 (define-method (NAME ARG-SPEC ... . REST-ARG) BODY ...)
3964 ARG-SPEC ::= ARG-NAME | (ARG-NAME TYPE)
3965 REST-ARG ::= ARG-NAME
3967 If you have old code using the old syntax, import
3968 (oop goops old-define-method) before (oop goops) as in:
3970 (use-modules (oop goops old-define-method) (oop goops))
3972 ** Deprecated function: builtin-variable
3973 Removed function: builtin-bindings
3975 There is no longer a distinction between builtin or other variables.
3976 Use module system operations for all variables.
3978 ** Lazy-catch handlers are no longer allowed to return.
3980 That is, a call to `throw', `error', etc is now guaranteed to not
3983 ** Bugfixes for (ice-9 getopt-long)
3985 This module is now tested using test-suite/tests/getopt-long.test.
3986 The following bugs have been fixed:
3988 *** Parsing for options that are specified to have `optional' args now checks
3989 if the next element is an option instead of unconditionally taking it as the
3992 *** An error is now thrown for `--opt=val' when the option description
3993 does not specify `(value #t)' or `(value optional)'. This condition used to
3994 be accepted w/o error, contrary to the documentation.
3996 *** The error message for unrecognized options is now more informative.
3997 It used to be "not a record", an artifact of the implementation.
3999 *** The error message for `--opt' terminating the arg list (no value), when
4000 `(value #t)' is specified, is now more informative. It used to be "not enough
4003 *** "Clumped" single-char args now preserve trailing string, use it as arg.
4004 The expansion used to be like so:
4006 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "--xyz")
4008 Note that the "5d" is dropped. Now it is like so:
4010 ("-abc5d" "--xyz") => ("-a" "-b" "-c" "5d" "--xyz")
4012 This enables single-char options to have adjoining arguments as long as their
4013 constituent characters are not potential single-char options.
4015 ** (ice-9 session) procedure `arity' now works with (ice-9 optargs) `lambda*'
4017 The `lambda*' and derivative forms in (ice-9 optargs) now set a procedure
4018 property `arglist', which can be retrieved by `arity'. The result is that
4019 `arity' can give more detailed information than before:
4023 guile> (use-modules (ice-9 optargs))
4024 guile> (define* (foo #:optional a b c) a)
4026 0 or more arguments in `lambda*:G0'.
4031 3 optional arguments: `a', `b' and `c'.
4032 guile> (define* (bar a b #:key c d #:allow-other-keys) a)
4034 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 2 keyword arguments: `c'
4035 and `d', other keywords allowed.
4036 guile> (define* (baz a b #:optional c #:rest r) a)
4038 2 required arguments: `a' and `b', 1 optional argument: `c',
4041 * Changes to the C interface
4043 ** Types have been renamed from scm_*_t to scm_t_*.
4045 This has been done for POSIX sake. It reserves identifiers ending
4046 with "_t". What a concept.
4048 The old names are still available with status `deprecated'.
4050 ** scm_t_bits (former scm_bits_t) is now a unsigned type.
4052 ** Deprecated features have been removed.
4056 SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP SCM_ICHRP, SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR
4057 SCM_SETJMPBUF SCM_NSTRINGP SCM_NRWSTRINGP SCM_NVECTORP SCM_DOUBLE_CELLP
4059 *** C Functions removed
4061 scm_sysmissing scm_tag scm_tc16_flo scm_tc_flo
4062 scm_fseek - replaced by scm_seek.
4063 gc-thunk - replaced by after-gc-hook.
4064 gh_int2scmb - replaced by gh_bool2scm.
4065 scm_tc_dblr - replaced by scm_tc16_real.
4066 scm_tc_dblc - replaced by scm_tc16_complex.
4067 scm_list_star - replaced by scm_cons_star.
4069 ** Deprecated: scm_makfromstr
4071 Use scm_mem2string instead.
4073 ** Deprecated: scm_make_shared_substring
4075 Explicit shared substrings will disappear from Guile.
4077 Instead, "normal" strings will be implemented using sharing
4078 internally, combined with a copy-on-write strategy.
4080 ** Deprecated: scm_read_only_string_p
4082 The concept of read-only strings will disappear in next release of
4085 ** Deprecated: scm_sloppy_memq, scm_sloppy_memv, scm_sloppy_member
4087 Instead, use scm_c_memq or scm_memq, scm_memv, scm_member.
4089 ** New functions: scm_call_0, scm_call_1, scm_call_2, scm_call_3
4091 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments. See "Fly
4092 Evaluation" in the manual.
4094 ** New functions: scm_apply_0, scm_apply_1, scm_apply_2, scm_apply_3
4096 Call a procedure with the indicated number of arguments and a list of
4097 further arguments. See "Fly Evaluation" in the manual.
4099 ** New functions: scm_list_1, scm_list_2, scm_list_3, scm_list_4, scm_list_5
4101 Create a list of the given number of elements. See "List
4102 Constructors" in the manual.
4104 ** Renamed function: scm_listify has been replaced by scm_list_n.
4106 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_LIST0, SCM_LIST1, SCM_LIST2, SCM_LIST3, SCM_LIST4,
4107 SCM_LIST5, SCM_LIST6, SCM_LIST7, SCM_LIST8, SCM_LIST9.
4109 Use functions scm_list_N instead.
4111 ** New function: scm_c_read (SCM port, void *buffer, scm_sizet size)
4113 Used by an application to read arbitrary number of bytes from a port.
4114 Same semantics as libc read, except that scm_c_read only returns less
4115 than SIZE bytes if at end-of-file.
4117 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4119 ** New function: scm_c_write (SCM port, const void *ptr, scm_sizet size)
4121 Used by an application to write arbitrary number of bytes to an SCM
4122 port. Similar semantics as libc write. However, unlike libc
4123 write, scm_c_write writes the requested number of bytes and has no
4126 Warning: Doesn't update port line and column counts!
4128 ** New function: scm_init_guile ()
4130 In contrast to scm_boot_guile, scm_init_guile will return normally
4131 after initializing Guile. It is not available on all systems, tho.
4133 ** New functions: scm_str2symbol, scm_mem2symbol
4135 The function scm_str2symbol takes a const char* pointing to a zero-terminated
4136 field of characters and creates a scheme symbol object from that C string.
4137 The function scm_mem2symbol takes a const char* and a number of characters and
4138 creates a symbol from the characters in that memory area.
4140 ** New functions: scm_primitive_make_property
4141 scm_primitive_property_ref
4142 scm_primitive_property_set_x
4143 scm_primitive_property_del_x
4145 These functions implement a new way to deal with object properties.
4146 See libguile/properties.c for their documentation.
4148 ** New function: scm_done_free (long size)
4150 This function is the inverse of scm_done_malloc. Use it to report the
4151 amount of smob memory you free. The previous method, which involved
4152 calling scm_done_malloc with negative argument, was somewhat
4153 unintuitive (and is still available, of course).
4155 ** New function: scm_c_memq (SCM obj, SCM list)
4157 This function provides a fast C level alternative for scm_memq for the case
4158 that the list parameter is known to be a proper list. The function is a
4159 replacement for scm_sloppy_memq, but is stricter in its requirements on its
4160 list input parameter, since for anything else but a proper list the function's
4161 behaviour is undefined - it may even crash or loop endlessly. Further, for
4162 the case that the object is not found in the list, scm_c_memq returns #f which
4163 is similar to scm_memq, but different from scm_sloppy_memq's behaviour.
4165 ** New functions: scm_remember_upto_here_1, scm_remember_upto_here_2,
4166 scm_remember_upto_here
4168 These functions replace the function scm_remember.
4170 ** Deprecated function: scm_remember
4172 Use one of the new functions scm_remember_upto_here_1,
4173 scm_remember_upto_here_2 or scm_remember_upto_here instead.
4175 ** New function: scm_allocate_string
4177 This function replaces the function scm_makstr.
4179 ** Deprecated function: scm_makstr
4181 Use the new function scm_allocate_string instead.
4183 ** New global variable scm_gc_running_p introduced.
4185 Use this variable to find out if garbage collection is being executed. Up to
4186 now applications have used scm_gc_heap_lock to test if garbage collection was
4187 running, which also works because of the fact that up to know only the garbage
4188 collector has set this variable. But, this is an implementation detail that
4189 may change. Further, scm_gc_heap_lock is not set throughout gc, thus the use
4190 of this variable is (and has been) not fully safe anyway.
4192 ** New macros: SCM_BITVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_MAX_LENGTH
4194 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4196 ** New macros: SCM_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_CCLO_LENGTH, SCM_STACK_LENGTH,
4197 SCM_STRING_LENGTH, SCM_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4198 SCM_BITVECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_VECTOR_LENGTH.
4200 Use these instead of SCM_LENGTH.
4202 ** New macros: SCM_SET_CONTINUATION_LENGTH, SCM_SET_STRING_LENGTH,
4203 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_LENGTH, SCM_SET_VECTOR_LENGTH, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_LENGTH,
4204 SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_LENGTH
4206 Use these instead of SCM_SETLENGTH
4208 ** New macros: SCM_STRING_CHARS, SCM_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_CCLO_BASE,
4209 SCM_VECTOR_BASE, SCM_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_BITVECTOR_BASE, SCM_COMPLEX_MEM,
4212 Use these instead of SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS, SCM_ROCHARS, SCM_ROUCHARS or
4215 ** New macros: SCM_SET_BIGNUM_BASE, SCM_SET_STRING_CHARS,
4216 SCM_SET_SYMBOL_CHARS, SCM_SET_UVECTOR_BASE, SCM_SET_BITVECTOR_BASE,
4219 Use these instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4221 ** New macro: SCM_BITVECTOR_P
4223 ** New macro: SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X
4225 Use instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4227 ** New macros: SCM_DIR_OPEN_P, SCM_DIR_FLAG_OPEN
4229 For directory objects, use these instead of SCM_OPDIRP and SCM_OPN.
4231 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_OUTOFRANGE, SCM_NALLOC, SCM_HUP_SIGNAL,
4232 SCM_INT_SIGNAL, SCM_FPE_SIGNAL, SCM_BUS_SIGNAL, SCM_SEGV_SIGNAL,
4233 SCM_ALRM_SIGNAL, SCM_GC_SIGNAL, SCM_TICK_SIGNAL, SCM_SIG_ORD,
4234 SCM_ORD_SIG, SCM_NUM_SIGS, SCM_SYMBOL_SLOTS, SCM_SLOTS, SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP,
4235 SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR, SCM_FREEP, SCM_NFREEP, SCM_CHARS, SCM_UCHARS,
4236 SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING, SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING_COPY,
4237 SCM_VALIDATE_NULLORROSTRING_COPY, SCM_ROLENGTH, SCM_LENGTH, SCM_HUGE_LENGTH,
4238 SCM_SUBSTRP, SCM_SUBSTR_STR, SCM_SUBSTR_OFFSET, SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR,
4239 SCM_ROSTRINGP, SCM_RWSTRINGP, SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING, SCM_ROCHARS,
4240 SCM_ROUCHARS, SCM_SETLENGTH, SCM_SETCHARS, SCM_LENGTH_MAX, SCM_GC8MARKP,
4241 SCM_SETGC8MARK, SCM_CLRGC8MARK, SCM_GCTYP16, SCM_GCCDR, SCM_SUBR_DOC,
4242 SCM_OPDIRP, SCM_VALIDATE_OPDIR, SCM_WTA, RETURN_SCM_WTA, SCM_CONST_LONG,
4243 SCM_WNA, SCM_FUNC_NAME, SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_COPY,
4244 SCM_VALIDATE_NUMBER_DEF_COPY, SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP, SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP,
4245 SCM_SETAND_CDR, SCM_SETOR_CDR, SCM_SETAND_CAR, SCM_SETOR_CAR
4247 Use SCM_ASSERT_RANGE or SCM_VALIDATE_XXX_RANGE instead of SCM_OUTOFRANGE.
4248 Use scm_memory_error instead of SCM_NALLOC.
4249 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_STRINGP.
4250 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_STRINGORSUBSTR.
4251 Use SCM_FREE_CELL_P instead of SCM_FREEP/SCM_NFREEP
4252 Use a type specific accessor macro instead of SCM_CHARS/SCM_UCHARS.
4253 Use a type specific accessor instead of SCM(_|_RO|_HUGE_)LENGTH.
4254 Use SCM_VALIDATE_(SYMBOL|STRING) instead of SCM_VALIDATE_ROSTRING.
4255 Use SCM_STRING_COERCE_0TERMINATION_X instead of SCM_COERCE_SUBSTR.
4256 Use SCM_STRINGP or SCM_SYMBOLP instead of SCM_ROSTRINGP.
4257 Use SCM_STRINGP instead of SCM_RWSTRINGP.
4258 Use SCM_VALIDATE_STRING instead of SCM_VALIDATE_RWSTRING.
4259 Use SCM_STRING_CHARS instead of SCM_ROCHARS.
4260 Use SCM_STRING_UCHARS instead of SCM_ROUCHARS.
4261 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETLENGTH.
4262 Use a type specific setter macro instead of SCM_SETCHARS.
4263 Use a type specific length macro instead of SCM_LENGTH_MAX.
4264 Use SCM_GCMARKP instead of SCM_GC8MARKP.
4265 Use SCM_SETGCMARK instead of SCM_SETGC8MARK.
4266 Use SCM_CLRGCMARK instead of SCM_CLRGC8MARK.
4267 Use SCM_TYP16 instead of SCM_GCTYP16.
4268 Use SCM_CDR instead of SCM_GCCDR.
4269 Use SCM_DIR_OPEN_P instead of SCM_OPDIRP.
4270 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of SCM_WTA.
4271 Use SCM_MISC_ERROR or SCM_WRONG_TYPE_ARG instead of RETURN_SCM_WTA.
4272 Use SCM_VCELL_INIT instead of SCM_CONST_LONG.
4273 Use SCM_WRONG_NUM_ARGS instead of SCM_WNA.
4274 Use SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_CONSP.
4275 Use !SCM_CONSP instead of SCM_SLOPPY_NCONSP.
4277 ** Removed function: scm_struct_init
4279 ** Removed variable: scm_symhash_dim
4281 ** Renamed function: scm_make_cont has been replaced by
4282 scm_make_continuation, which has a different interface.
4284 ** Deprecated function: scm_call_catching_errors
4286 Use scm_catch or scm_lazy_catch from throw.[ch] instead.
4288 ** Deprecated function: scm_strhash
4290 Use scm_string_hash instead.
4292 ** Deprecated function: scm_vector_set_length_x
4294 Instead, create a fresh vector of the desired size and copy the contents.
4296 ** scm_gensym has changed prototype
4298 scm_gensym now only takes one argument.
4300 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc7_ssymbol, scm_tc7_msymbol, scm_tcs_symbols,
4303 There is now only a single symbol type scm_tc7_symbol.
4304 The tag scm_tc7_lvector was not used anyway.
4306 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe, scm_set_smob_mfpe.
4308 Use scm_make_smob_type and scm_set_smob_XXX instead.
4310 ** New function scm_set_smob_apply.
4312 This can be used to set an apply function to a smob type.
4314 ** Deprecated function: scm_strprint_obj
4316 Use scm_object_to_string instead.
4318 ** Deprecated function: scm_wta
4320 Use scm_wrong_type_arg, or another appropriate error signalling function
4323 ** Explicit support for obarrays has been deprecated.
4325 Use `scm_str2symbol' and the generic hashtable functions instead.
4327 ** The concept of `vcells' has been deprecated.
4329 The data type `variable' is now used exclusively. `Vcells' have been
4330 a low-level concept so you are likely not affected by this change.
4332 *** Deprecated functions: scm_sym2vcell, scm_sysintern,
4333 scm_sysintern0, scm_symbol_value0, scm_intern, scm_intern0.
4335 Use scm_c_define or scm_c_lookup instead, as appropriate.
4337 *** New functions: scm_c_module_lookup, scm_c_lookup,
4338 scm_c_module_define, scm_c_define, scm_module_lookup, scm_lookup,
4339 scm_module_define, scm_define.
4341 These functions work with variables instead of with vcells.
4343 ** New functions for creating and defining `subr's and `gsubr's.
4345 The new functions more clearly distinguish between creating a subr (or
4346 gsubr) object and adding it to the current module.
4348 These new functions are available: scm_c_make_subr, scm_c_define_subr,
4349 scm_c_make_subr_with_generic, scm_c_define_subr_with_generic,
4350 scm_c_make_gsubr, scm_c_define_gsubr, scm_c_make_gsubr_with_generic,
4351 scm_c_define_gsubr_with_generic.
4353 ** Deprecated functions: scm_make_subr, scm_make_subr_opt,
4354 scm_make_subr_with_generic, scm_make_gsubr,
4355 scm_make_gsubr_with_generic.
4357 Use the new ones from above instead.
4359 ** C interface to the module system has changed.
4361 While we suggest that you avoid as many explicit module system
4362 operations from C as possible for the time being, the C interface has
4363 been made more similar to the high-level Scheme module system.
4365 *** New functions: scm_c_define_module, scm_c_use_module,
4366 scm_c_export, scm_c_resolve_module.
4368 They mostly work like their Scheme namesakes. scm_c_define_module
4369 takes a function that is called a context where the new module is
4372 *** Deprecated functions: scm_the_root_module, scm_make_module,
4373 scm_ensure_user_module, scm_load_scheme_module.
4375 Use the new functions instead.
4377 ** Renamed function: scm_internal_with_fluids becomes
4380 scm_internal_with_fluids is available as a deprecated function.
4382 ** New function: scm_c_with_fluid.
4384 Just like scm_c_with_fluids, but takes one fluid and one value instead
4387 ** Deprecated typedefs: long_long, ulong_long.
4389 They are of questionable utility and they pollute the global
4392 ** Deprecated typedef: scm_sizet
4394 It is of questionable utility now that Guile requires ANSI C, and is
4397 ** Deprecated typedefs: scm_port_rw_active, scm_port,
4398 scm_ptob_descriptor, scm_debug_info, scm_debug_frame, scm_fport,
4399 scm_option, scm_rstate, scm_rng, scm_array, scm_array_dim.
4401 Made more compliant with the naming policy by adding a _t at the end.
4403 ** Deprecated functions: scm_mkbig, scm_big2num, scm_adjbig,
4404 scm_normbig, scm_copybig, scm_2ulong2big, scm_dbl2big, scm_big2dbl
4406 With the exception of the mysterious scm_2ulong2big, they are still
4407 available under new names (scm_i_mkbig etc). These functions are not
4408 intended to be used in user code. You should avoid dealing with
4409 bignums directly, and should deal with numbers in general (which can
4412 ** Change in behavior: scm_num2long, scm_num2ulong
4414 The scm_num2[u]long functions don't any longer accept an inexact
4415 argument. This change in behavior is motivated by concordance with
4416 R5RS: It is more common that a primitive doesn't want to accept an
4417 inexact for an exact.
4419 ** New functions: scm_short2num, scm_ushort2num, scm_int2num,
4420 scm_uint2num, scm_size2num, scm_ptrdiff2num, scm_num2short,
4421 scm_num2ushort, scm_num2int, scm_num2uint, scm_num2ptrdiff,
4424 These are conversion functions between the various ANSI C integral
4425 types and Scheme numbers. NOTE: The scm_num2xxx functions don't
4426 accept an inexact argument.
4428 ** New functions: scm_float2num, scm_double2num,
4429 scm_num2float, scm_num2double.
4431 These are conversion functions between the two ANSI C float types and
4434 ** New number validation macros:
4435 SCM_NUM2{SIZE,PTRDIFF,SHORT,USHORT,INT,UINT}[_DEF]
4439 ** New functions: scm_gc_protect_object, scm_gc_unprotect_object
4441 These are just nicer-named old scm_protect_object and
4442 scm_unprotect_object.
4444 ** Deprecated functions: scm_protect_object, scm_unprotect_object
4446 ** New functions: scm_gc_[un]register_root, scm_gc_[un]register_roots
4448 These functions can be used to register pointers to locations that
4451 ** Deprecated function: scm_create_hook.
4453 Its sins are: misleading name, non-modularity and lack of general
4457 Changes since Guile 1.3.4:
4459 * Changes to the distribution
4461 ** Trees from nightly snapshots and CVS now require you to run autogen.sh.
4463 We've changed the way we handle generated files in the Guile source
4464 repository. As a result, the procedure for building trees obtained
4465 from the nightly FTP snapshots or via CVS has changed:
4466 - You must have appropriate versions of autoconf, automake, and
4467 libtool installed on your system. See README for info on how to
4468 obtain these programs.
4469 - Before configuring the tree, you must first run the script
4470 `autogen.sh' at the top of the source tree.
4472 The Guile repository used to contain not only source files, written by
4473 humans, but also some generated files, like configure scripts and
4474 Makefile.in files. Even though the contents of these files could be
4475 derived mechanically from other files present, we thought it would
4476 make the tree easier to build if we checked them into CVS.
4478 However, this approach means that minor differences between
4479 developer's installed tools and habits affected the whole team.
4480 So we have removed the generated files from the repository, and
4481 added the autogen.sh script, which will reconstruct them
4485 ** configure now has experimental options to remove support for certain
4488 --disable-arrays omit array and uniform array support
4489 --disable-posix omit posix interfaces
4490 --disable-networking omit networking interfaces
4491 --disable-regex omit regular expression interfaces
4493 These are likely to become separate modules some day.
4495 ** New configure option --enable-debug-freelist
4497 This enables a debugging version of SCM_NEWCELL(), and also registers
4498 an extra primitive, the setter `gc-set-debug-check-freelist!'.
4500 Configure with the --enable-debug-freelist option to enable
4501 the gc-set-debug-check-freelist! primitive, and then use:
4503 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #t) # turn on checking of the freelist
4504 (gc-set-debug-check-freelist! #f) # turn off checking
4506 Checking of the freelist forces a traversal of the freelist and
4507 a garbage collection before each allocation of a cell. This can
4508 slow down the interpreter dramatically, so the setter should be used to
4509 turn on this extra processing only when necessary.
4511 ** New configure option --enable-debug-malloc
4513 Include code for debugging of calls to scm_must_malloc/realloc/free.
4517 1. objects freed by scm_must_free has been mallocated by scm_must_malloc
4518 2. objects reallocated by scm_must_realloc has been allocated by
4520 3. reallocated objects are reallocated with the same what string
4522 But, most importantly, it records the number of allocated objects of
4523 each kind. This is useful when searching for memory leaks.
4525 A Guile compiled with this option provides the primitive
4526 `malloc-stats' which returns an alist with pairs of kind and the
4527 number of objects of that kind.
4529 ** All includes are now referenced relative to the root directory
4531 Since some users have had problems with mixups between Guile and
4532 system headers, we have decided to always refer to Guile headers via
4533 their parent directories. This essentially creates a "private name
4534 space" for Guile headers. This means that the compiler only is given
4535 -I options for the root build and root source directory.
4537 ** Header files kw.h and genio.h have been removed.
4539 ** The module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) has been removed.
4541 ** New module (ice-9 documentation)
4543 Implements the interface to documentation strings associated with
4546 ** New module (ice-9 time)
4548 Provides a macro `time', which displays execution time of a given form.
4550 ** New module (ice-9 history)
4552 Loading this module enables value history in the repl.
4554 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
4556 ** New command line option --debug
4558 Start Guile with debugging evaluator and backtraces enabled.
4560 This is useful when debugging your .guile init file or scripts.
4562 ** New help facility
4564 Usage: (help NAME) gives documentation about objects named NAME (a symbol)
4565 (help REGEXP) ditto for objects with names matching REGEXP (a string)
4566 (help 'NAME) gives documentation for NAME, even if it is not an object
4567 (help ,EXPR) gives documentation for object returned by EXPR
4568 (help (my module)) gives module commentary for `(my module)'
4569 (help) gives this text
4571 `help' searches among bindings exported from loaded modules, while
4572 `apropos' searches among bindings visible from the "current" module.
4574 Examples: (help help)
4576 (help "output-string")
4578 ** `help' and `apropos' now prints full module names
4580 ** Dynamic linking now uses libltdl from the libtool package.
4582 The old system dependent code for doing dynamic linking has been
4583 replaced with calls to the libltdl functions which do all the hairy
4586 The major improvement is that you can now directly pass libtool
4587 library names like "libfoo.la" to `dynamic-link' and `dynamic-link'
4588 will be able to do the best shared library job you can get, via
4591 The way dynamic libraries are found has changed and is not really
4592 portable across platforms, probably. It is therefore recommended to
4593 use absolute filenames when possible.
4595 If you pass a filename without an extension to `dynamic-link', it will
4596 try a few appropriate ones. Thus, the most platform ignorant way is
4597 to specify a name like "libfoo", without any directories and
4600 ** Guile COOP threads are now compatible with LinuxThreads
4602 Previously, COOP threading wasn't possible in applications linked with
4603 Linux POSIX threads due to their use of the stack pointer to find the
4604 thread context. This has now been fixed with a workaround which uses
4605 the pthreads to allocate the stack.
4607 ** New primitives: `pkgdata-dir', `site-dir', `library-dir'
4609 ** Positions of erring expression in scripts
4611 With version 1.3.4, the location of the erring expression in Guile
4612 scipts is no longer automatically reported. (This should have been
4613 documented before the 1.3.4 release.)
4615 You can get this information by enabling recording of positions of
4616 source expressions and running the debugging evaluator. Put this at
4617 the top of your script (or in your "site" file):
4619 (read-enable 'positions)
4620 (debug-enable 'debug)
4622 ** Backtraces in scripts
4624 It is now possible to get backtraces in scripts.
4628 (debug-enable 'debug 'backtrace)
4630 at the top of the script.
4632 (The first options enables the debugging evaluator.
4633 The second enables backtraces.)
4635 ** Part of module system symbol lookup now implemented in C
4637 The eval closure of most modules is now implemented in C. Since this
4638 was one of the bottlenecks for loading speed, Guile now loads code
4639 substantially faster than before.
4641 ** Attempting to get the value of an unbound variable now produces
4642 an exception with a key of 'unbound-variable instead of 'misc-error.
4644 ** The initial default output port is now unbuffered if it's using a
4645 tty device. Previously in this situation it was line-buffered.
4647 ** New hook: after-gc-hook
4649 after-gc-hook takes over the role of gc-thunk. This hook is run at
4650 the first SCM_TICK after a GC. (Thus, the code is run at the same
4651 point during evaluation as signal handlers.)
4653 Note that this hook should be used only for diagnostic and debugging
4654 purposes. It is not certain that it will continue to be well-defined
4655 when this hook is run in the future.
4657 C programmers: Note the new C level hooks scm_before_gc_c_hook,
4658 scm_before_sweep_c_hook, scm_after_gc_c_hook.
4660 ** Improvements to garbage collector
4662 Guile 1.4 has a new policy for triggering heap allocation and
4663 determining the sizes of heap segments. It fixes a number of problems
4666 1. The new policy can handle two separate pools of cells
4667 (2-word/4-word) better. (The old policy would run wild, allocating
4668 more and more memory for certain programs.)
4670 2. The old code would sometimes allocate far too much heap so that the
4671 Guile process became gigantic. The new code avoids this.
4673 3. The old code would sometimes allocate too little so that few cells
4674 were freed at GC so that, in turn, too much time was spent in GC.
4676 4. The old code would often trigger heap allocation several times in a
4677 row. (The new scheme predicts how large the segments needs to be
4678 in order not to need further allocation.)
4680 All in all, the new GC policy will make larger applications more
4683 The new GC scheme also is prepared for POSIX threading. Threads can
4684 allocate private pools of cells ("clusters") with just a single
4685 function call. Allocation of single cells from such a cluster can
4686 then proceed without any need of inter-thread synchronization.
4688 ** New environment variables controlling GC parameters
4690 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE Maximal segment size
4693 Allocation of 2-word cell heaps:
4695 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_1 Size of initial heap segment in bytes
4698 GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1 Minimum number of freed cells at each
4699 GC in percent of total heap size
4702 Allocation of 4-word cell heaps
4703 (used for real numbers and misc other objects):
4705 GUILE_INIT_SEGMENT_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2
4707 (See entry "Way for application to customize GC parameters" under
4708 section "Changes to the scm_ interface" below.)
4710 ** Guile now implements reals using 4-word cells
4712 This speeds up computation with reals. (They were earlier allocated
4713 with `malloc'.) There is still some room for optimizations, however.
4715 ** Some further steps toward POSIX thread support have been taken
4717 *** Guile's critical sections (SCM_DEFER/ALLOW_INTS)
4718 don't have much effect any longer, and many of them will be removed in
4722 are only handled at the top of the evaluator loop, immediately after
4723 I/O, and in scm_equalp.
4725 *** The GC can allocate thread private pools of pairs.
4727 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
4729 ** close-input-port and close-output-port are now R5RS
4731 These procedures have been turned into primitives and have R5RS behaviour.
4733 ** New procedure: simple-format PORT MESSAGE ARG1 ...
4735 (ice-9 boot) makes `format' an alias for `simple-format' until possibly
4736 extended by the more sophisticated version in (ice-9 format)
4738 (simple-format port message . args)
4739 Write MESSAGE to DESTINATION, defaulting to `current-output-port'.
4740 MESSAGE can contain ~A (was %s) and ~S (was %S) escapes. When printed,
4741 the escapes are replaced with corresponding members of ARGS:
4742 ~A formats using `display' and ~S formats using `write'.
4743 If DESTINATION is #t, then use the `current-output-port',
4744 if DESTINATION is #f, then return a string containing the formatted text.
4745 Does not add a trailing newline."
4747 ** string-ref: the second argument is no longer optional.
4749 ** string, list->string: no longer accept strings in their arguments,
4750 only characters, for compatibility with R5RS.
4752 ** New procedure: port-closed? PORT
4753 Returns #t if PORT is closed or #f if it is open.
4755 ** Deprecated: list*
4757 The list* functionality is now provided by cons* (SRFI-1 compliant)
4759 ** New procedure: cons* ARG1 ARG2 ... ARGn
4761 Like `list', but the last arg provides the tail of the constructed list,
4762 returning (cons ARG1 (cons ARG2 (cons ... ARGn))).
4764 Requires at least one argument. If given one argument, that argument
4765 is returned as result.
4767 This function is called `list*' in some other Schemes and in Common LISP.
4769 ** Removed deprecated: serial-map, serial-array-copy!, serial-array-map!
4771 ** New procedure: object-documentation OBJECT
4773 Returns the documentation string associated with OBJECT. The
4774 procedure uses a caching mechanism so that subsequent lookups are
4777 Exported by (ice-9 documentation).
4779 ** module-name now returns full names of modules
4781 Previously, only the last part of the name was returned (`session' for
4782 `(ice-9 session)'). Ex: `(ice-9 session)'.
4784 * Changes to the gh_ interface
4786 ** Deprecated: gh_int2scmb
4788 Use gh_bool2scm instead.
4790 * Changes to the scm_ interface
4792 ** Guile primitives now carry docstrings!
4794 Thanks to Greg Badros!
4796 ** Guile primitives are defined in a new way: SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4798 Now Guile primitives are defined using the SCM_DEFINE/SCM_DEFINE1/SCM_PROC
4799 macros and must contain a docstring that is extracted into foo.doc using a new
4800 guile-doc-snarf script (that uses guile-doc-snarf.awk).
4802 However, a major overhaul of these macros is scheduled for the next release of
4805 ** Guile primitives use a new technique for validation of arguments
4807 SCM_VALIDATE_* macros are defined to ease the redundancy and improve
4808 the readability of argument checking.
4810 ** All (nearly?) K&R prototypes for functions replaced with ANSI C equivalents.
4812 ** New macros: SCM_PACK, SCM_UNPACK
4814 Compose/decompose an SCM value.
4816 The SCM type is now treated as an abstract data type and may be defined as a
4817 long, a void* or as a struct, depending on the architecture and compile time
4818 options. This makes it easier to find several types of bugs, for example when
4819 SCM values are treated as integers without conversion. Values of the SCM type
4820 should be treated as "atomic" values. These macros are used when
4821 composing/decomposing an SCM value, either because you want to access
4822 individual bits, or because you want to treat it as an integer value.
4824 E.g., in order to set bit 7 in an SCM value x, use the expression
4826 SCM_PACK (SCM_UNPACK (x) | 0x80)
4828 ** The name property of hooks is deprecated.
4829 Thus, the use of SCM_HOOK_NAME and scm_make_hook_with_name is deprecated.
4831 You can emulate this feature by using object properties.
4833 ** Deprecated macros: SCM_INPORTP, SCM_OUTPORTP, SCM_CRDY, SCM_ICHRP,
4834 SCM_ICHR, SCM_MAKICHR, SCM_SETJMPBUF, SCM_NSTRINGP, SCM_NRWSTRINGP,
4837 These macros will be removed in a future release of Guile.
4839 ** The following types, functions and macros from numbers.h are deprecated:
4840 scm_dblproc, SCM_UNEGFIXABLE, SCM_FLOBUFLEN, SCM_INEXP, SCM_CPLXP, SCM_REAL,
4841 SCM_IMAG, SCM_REALPART, scm_makdbl, SCM_SINGP, SCM_NUM2DBL, SCM_NO_BIGDIG
4843 ** Port internals: the rw_random variable in the scm_port structure
4844 must be set to non-zero in any random access port. In recent Guile
4845 releases it was only set for bidirectional random-access ports.
4847 ** Port internals: the seek ptob procedure is now responsible for
4848 resetting the buffers if required. The change was made so that in the
4849 special case of reading the current position (i.e., seek p 0 SEEK_CUR)
4850 the fport and strport ptobs can avoid resetting the buffers,
4851 in particular to avoid discarding unread chars. An existing port
4852 type can be fixed by adding something like the following to the
4853 beginning of the ptob seek procedure:
4855 if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_READ)
4856 scm_end_input (object);
4857 else if (pt->rw_active == SCM_PORT_WRITE)
4858 ptob->flush (object);
4860 although to actually avoid resetting the buffers and discard unread
4861 chars requires further hacking that depends on the characteristics
4864 ** Deprecated functions: scm_fseek, scm_tag
4866 These functions are no longer used and will be removed in a future version.
4868 ** The scm_sysmissing procedure is no longer used in libguile.
4869 Unless it turns out to be unexpectedly useful to somebody, it will be
4870 removed in a future version.
4872 ** The format of error message strings has changed
4874 The two C procedures: scm_display_error and scm_error, as well as the
4875 primitive `scm-error', now use scm_simple_format to do their work.
4876 This means that the message strings of all code must be updated to use
4877 ~A where %s was used before, and ~S where %S was used before.
4879 During the period when there still are a lot of old Guiles out there,
4880 you might want to support both old and new versions of Guile.
4882 There are basically two methods to achieve this. Both methods use
4885 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(scm_simple_format)
4887 in your configure.in.
4889 Method 1: Use the string concatenation features of ANSI C's
4894 #ifdef HAVE_SCM_SIMPLE_FORMAT
4900 Then represent each of your error messages using a preprocessor macro:
4902 #define E_SPIDER_ERROR "There's a spider in your " ## FMT_S ## "!!!"
4906 (define fmt-s (if (defined? 'simple-format) "~S" "%S"))
4907 (define make-message string-append)
4909 (define e-spider-error (make-message "There's a spider in your " fmt-s "!!!"))
4911 Method 2: Use the oldfmt function found in doc/oldfmt.c.
4915 scm_misc_error ("picnic", scm_c_oldfmt0 ("There's a spider in your ~S!!!"),
4920 (scm-error 'misc-error "picnic" (oldfmt "There's a spider in your ~S!!!")
4924 ** Deprecated: coop_mutex_init, coop_condition_variable_init
4926 Don't use the functions coop_mutex_init and
4927 coop_condition_variable_init. They will change.
4929 Use scm_mutex_init and scm_cond_init instead.
4931 ** New function: int scm_cond_timedwait (scm_cond_t *COND, scm_mutex_t *MUTEX, const struct timespec *ABSTIME)
4932 `scm_cond_timedwait' atomically unlocks MUTEX and waits on
4933 COND, as `scm_cond_wait' does, but it also bounds the duration
4934 of the wait. If COND has not been signaled before time ABSTIME,
4935 the mutex MUTEX is re-acquired and `scm_cond_timedwait'
4936 returns the error code `ETIMEDOUT'.
4938 The ABSTIME parameter specifies an absolute time, with the same
4939 origin as `time' and `gettimeofday': an ABSTIME of 0 corresponds
4940 to 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
4942 ** New function: scm_cond_broadcast (scm_cond_t *COND)
4943 `scm_cond_broadcast' restarts all the threads that are waiting
4944 on the condition variable COND. Nothing happens if no threads are
4947 ** New function: scm_key_create (scm_key_t *KEY, void (*destr_function) (void *))
4948 `scm_key_create' allocates a new TSD key. The key is stored in
4949 the location pointed to by KEY. There is no limit on the number
4950 of keys allocated at a given time. The value initially associated
4951 with the returned key is `NULL' in all currently executing threads.
4953 The DESTR_FUNCTION argument, if not `NULL', specifies a destructor
4954 function associated with the key. When a thread terminates,
4955 DESTR_FUNCTION is called on the value associated with the key in
4956 that thread. The DESTR_FUNCTION is not called if a key is deleted
4957 with `scm_key_delete' or a value is changed with
4958 `scm_setspecific'. The order in which destructor functions are
4959 called at thread termination time is unspecified.
4961 Destructors are not yet implemented.
4963 ** New function: scm_setspecific (scm_key_t KEY, const void *POINTER)
4964 `scm_setspecific' changes the value associated with KEY in the
4965 calling thread, storing the given POINTER instead.
4967 ** New function: scm_getspecific (scm_key_t KEY)
4968 `scm_getspecific' returns the value currently associated with
4969 KEY in the calling thread.
4971 ** New function: scm_key_delete (scm_key_t KEY)
4972 `scm_key_delete' deallocates a TSD key. It does not check
4973 whether non-`NULL' values are associated with that key in the
4974 currently executing threads, nor call the destructor function
4975 associated with the key.
4977 ** New function: scm_c_hook_init (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *HOOK_DATA, scm_c_hook_type_t TYPE)
4979 Initialize a C level hook HOOK with associated HOOK_DATA and type
4980 TYPE. (See scm_c_hook_run ().)
4982 ** New function: scm_c_hook_add (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA, int APPENDP)
4984 Add hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA to HOOK. If APPENDP
4985 is true, add it last, otherwise first. The same FUNC can be added
4986 multiple times if FUNC_DATA differ and vice versa.
4988 ** New function: scm_c_hook_remove (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, scm_c_hook_function_t FUNC, void *FUNC_DATA)
4990 Remove hook function FUNC with associated FUNC_DATA from HOOK. A
4991 function is only removed if both FUNC and FUNC_DATA matches.
4993 ** New function: void *scm_c_hook_run (scm_c_hook_t *HOOK, void *DATA)
4995 Run hook HOOK passing DATA to the hook functions.
4997 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_NORMAL, all hook functions are run. The value
4998 returned is undefined.
5000 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_OR, hook functions are run until a function
5001 returns a non-NULL value. This value is returned as the result of
5002 scm_c_hook_run. If all functions return NULL, NULL is returned.
5004 If TYPE is SCM_C_HOOK_AND, hook functions are run until a function
5005 returns a NULL value, and NULL is returned. If all functions returns
5006 a non-NULL value, the last value is returned.
5008 ** New C level GC hooks
5010 Five new C level hooks has been added to the garbage collector.
5012 scm_before_gc_c_hook
5015 are run before locking and after unlocking the heap. The system is
5016 thus in a mode where evaluation can take place. (Except that
5017 scm_before_gc_c_hook must not allocate new cells.)
5019 scm_before_mark_c_hook
5020 scm_before_sweep_c_hook
5021 scm_after_sweep_c_hook
5023 are run when the heap is locked. These are intended for extension of
5024 the GC in a modular fashion. Examples are the weaks and guardians
5027 ** Way for application to customize GC parameters
5029 The application can set up other default values for the GC heap
5030 allocation parameters
5032 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_1, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_1,
5033 GUILE_INIT_HEAP_SIZE_2, GUILE_MIN_YIELD_2,
5034 GUILE_MAX_SEGMENT_SIZE,
5038 scm_default_init_heap_size_1, scm_default_min_yield_1,
5039 scm_default_init_heap_size_2, scm_default_min_yield_2,
5040 scm_default_max_segment_size
5042 respectively before callong scm_boot_guile.
5044 (See entry "New environment variables ..." in section
5045 "Changes to the stand-alone interpreter" above.)
5047 ** scm_protect_object/scm_unprotect_object now nest
5049 This means that you can call scm_protect_object multiple times on an
5050 object and count on the object being protected until
5051 scm_unprotect_object has been call the same number of times.
5053 The functions also have better time complexity.
5055 Still, it is usually possible to structure the application in a way
5056 that you don't need to use these functions. For example, if you use a
5057 protected standard Guile list to keep track of live objects rather
5058 than some custom data type, objects will die a natural death when they
5059 are no longer needed.
5061 ** Deprecated type tags: scm_tc16_flo, scm_tc_flo, scm_tc_dblr, scm_tc_dblc
5063 Guile does not provide the float representation for inexact real numbers any
5064 more. Now, only doubles are used to represent inexact real numbers. Further,
5065 the tag names scm_tc_dblr and scm_tc_dblc have been changed to scm_tc16_real
5066 and scm_tc16_complex, respectively.
5068 ** Removed deprecated type scm_smobfuns
5070 ** Removed deprecated function scm_newsmob
5072 ** Warning: scm_make_smob_type_mfpe might become deprecated in a future release
5074 There is an ongoing discussion among the developers whether to
5075 deprecate `scm_make_smob_type_mfpe' or not. Please use the current
5076 standard interface (scm_make_smob_type, scm_set_smob_XXX) in new code
5077 until this issue has been settled.
5079 ** Removed deprecated type tag scm_tc16_kw
5081 ** Added type tag scm_tc16_keyword
5083 (This was introduced already in release 1.3.4 but was not documented
5086 ** gdb_print now prints "*** Guile not initialized ***" until Guile initialized
5088 * Changes to system call interfaces:
5090 ** The "select" procedure now tests port buffers for the ability to
5091 provide input or accept output. Previously only the underlying file
5092 descriptors were checked.
5094 ** New variable PIPE_BUF: the maximum number of bytes that can be
5095 atomically written to a pipe.
5097 ** If a facility is not available on the system when Guile is
5098 compiled, the corresponding primitive procedure will not be defined.
5099 Previously it would have been defined but would throw a system-error
5100 exception if called. Exception handlers which catch this case may
5101 need minor modification: an error will be thrown with key
5102 'unbound-variable instead of 'system-error. Alternatively it's
5103 now possible to use `defined?' to check whether the facility is
5106 ** Procedures which depend on the timezone should now give the correct
5107 result on systems which cache the TZ environment variable, even if TZ
5108 is changed without calling tzset.
5110 * Changes to the networking interfaces:
5112 ** New functions: htons, ntohs, htonl, ntohl: for converting short and
5113 long integers between network and host format. For now, it's not
5114 particularly convenient to do this kind of thing, but consider:
5116 (define write-network-long
5117 (lambda (value port)
5118 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5119 (uniform-vector-set! v 0 (htonl value))
5120 (uniform-vector-write v port))))
5122 (define read-network-long
5124 (let ((v (make-uniform-vector 1 1 0)))
5125 (uniform-vector-read! v port)
5126 (ntohl (uniform-vector-ref v 0)))))
5128 ** If inet-aton fails, it now throws an error with key 'misc-error
5129 instead of 'system-error, since errno is not relevant.
5131 ** Certain gethostbyname/gethostbyaddr failures now throw errors with
5132 specific keys instead of 'system-error. The latter is inappropriate
5133 since errno will not have been set. The keys are:
5134 'host-not-found, 'try-again, 'no-recovery and 'no-data.
5136 ** sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent: now take an
5137 optional argument STAYOPEN, which specifies whether the database
5138 remains open after a database entry is accessed randomly (e.g., using
5139 gethostbyname for the hosts database.) The default is #f. Previously
5143 Changes since Guile 1.3.2:
5145 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5149 An initial version of the Guile debugger written by Chris Hanson has
5150 been added. The debugger is still under development but is included
5151 in the distribution anyway since it is already quite useful.
5157 after an error to enter the debugger. Type `help' inside the debugger
5158 for a description of available commands.
5160 If you prefer to have stack frames numbered and printed in
5161 anti-chronological order and prefer up in the stack to be down on the
5162 screen as is the case in gdb, you can put
5164 (debug-enable 'backwards)
5166 in your .guile startup file. (However, this means that Guile can't
5167 use indentation to indicate stack level.)
5169 The debugger is autoloaded into Guile at the first use.
5171 ** Further enhancements to backtraces
5173 There is a new debug option `width' which controls the maximum width
5174 on the screen of printed stack frames. Fancy printing parameters
5175 ("level" and "length" as in Common LISP) are adaptively adjusted for
5176 each stack frame to give maximum information while still fitting
5177 within the bounds. If the stack frame can't be made to fit by
5178 adjusting parameters, it is simply cut off at the end. This is marked
5181 ** Some modules are now only loaded when the repl is started
5183 The modules (ice-9 debug), (ice-9 session), (ice-9 threads) and (ice-9
5184 regex) are now loaded into (guile-user) only if the repl has been
5185 started. The effect is that the startup time for scripts has been
5186 reduced to 30% of what it was previously.
5188 Correctly written scripts load the modules they require at the top of
5189 the file and should not be affected by this change.
5191 ** Hooks are now represented as smobs
5193 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5195 ** Readline support has changed again.
5197 The old (readline-activator) module is gone. Use (ice-9 readline)
5198 instead, which now contains all readline functionality. So the code
5199 to activate readline is now
5201 (use-modules (ice-9 readline))
5204 This should work at any time, including from the guile prompt.
5206 To avoid confusion about the terms of Guile's license, please only
5207 enable readline for your personal use; please don't make it the
5208 default for others. Here is why we make this rather odd-sounding
5211 Guile is normally licensed under a weakened form of the GNU General
5212 Public License, which allows you to link code with Guile without
5213 placing that code under the GPL. This exception is important to some
5216 However, since readline is distributed under the GNU General Public
5217 License, when you link Guile with readline, either statically or
5218 dynamically, you effectively change Guile's license to the strict GPL.
5219 Whenever you link any strictly GPL'd code into Guile, uses of Guile
5220 which are normally permitted become forbidden. This is a rather
5221 non-obvious consequence of the licensing terms.
5223 So, to make sure things remain clear, please let people choose for
5224 themselves whether to link GPL'd libraries like readline with Guile.
5226 ** regexp-substitute/global has changed slightly, but incompatibly.
5228 If you include a function in the item list, the string of the match
5229 object it receives is the same string passed to
5230 regexp-substitute/global, not some suffix of that string.
5231 Correspondingly, the match's positions are relative to the entire
5232 string, not the suffix.
5234 If the regexp can match the empty string, the way matches are chosen
5235 from the string has changed. regexp-substitute/global recognizes the
5236 same set of matches that list-matches does; see below.
5238 ** New function: list-matches REGEXP STRING [FLAGS]
5240 Return a list of match objects, one for every non-overlapping, maximal
5241 match of REGEXP in STRING. The matches appear in left-to-right order.
5242 list-matches only reports matches of the empty string if there are no
5243 other matches which begin on, end at, or include the empty match's
5246 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5248 ** New function: fold-matches REGEXP STRING INIT PROC [FLAGS]
5250 For each match of REGEXP in STRING, apply PROC to the match object,
5251 and the last value PROC returned, or INIT for the first call. Return
5252 the last value returned by PROC. We apply PROC to the matches as they
5253 appear from left to right.
5255 This function recognizes matches according to the same criteria as
5258 Thus, you could define list-matches like this:
5260 (define (list-matches regexp string . flags)
5261 (reverse! (apply fold-matches regexp string '() cons flags)))
5263 If present, FLAGS is passed as the FLAGS argument to regexp-exec.
5267 *** New function: hook? OBJ
5269 Return #t if OBJ is a hook, otherwise #f.
5271 *** New function: make-hook-with-name NAME [ARITY]
5273 Return a hook with name NAME and arity ARITY. The default value for
5274 ARITY is 0. The only effect of NAME is that it will appear when the
5275 hook object is printed to ease debugging.
5277 *** New function: hook-empty? HOOK
5279 Return #t if HOOK doesn't contain any procedures, otherwise #f.
5281 *** New function: hook->list HOOK
5283 Return a list of the procedures that are called when run-hook is
5286 ** `map' signals an error if its argument lists are not all the same length.
5288 This is the behavior required by R5RS, so this change is really a bug
5289 fix. But it seems to affect a lot of people's code, so we're
5290 mentioning it here anyway.
5292 ** Print-state handling has been made more transparent
5294 Under certain circumstances, ports are represented as a port with an
5295 associated print state. Earlier, this pair was represented as a pair
5296 (see "Some magic has been added to the printer" below). It is now
5297 indistinguishable (almost; see `get-print-state') from a port on the
5300 *** New function: port-with-print-state OUTPUT-PORT PRINT-STATE
5302 Return a new port with the associated print state PRINT-STATE.
5304 *** New function: get-print-state OUTPUT-PORT
5306 Return the print state associated with this port if it exists,
5307 otherwise return #f.
5309 *** New function: directory-stream? OBJECT
5311 Returns true iff OBJECT is a directory stream --- the sort of object
5312 returned by `opendir'.
5314 ** New function: using-readline?
5316 Return #t if readline is in use in the current repl.
5318 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5320 Structs will be replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into Guile
5321 and use GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5323 * Changes to the scm_ interface
5325 ** structs will be removed in 1.4
5327 The entire current struct interface (struct.c, struct.h) will be
5328 replaced in Guile 1.4. We will merge GOOPS into libguile and use
5329 GOOPS objects as the fundamental record type.
5331 ** The internal representation of subr's has changed
5333 Instead of giving a hint to the subr name, the CAR field of the subr
5334 now contains an index to a subr entry in scm_subr_table.
5336 *** New variable: scm_subr_table
5338 An array of subr entries. A subr entry contains the name, properties
5339 and documentation associated with the subr. The properties and
5340 documentation slots are not yet used.
5342 ** A new scheme for "forwarding" calls to a builtin to a generic function
5344 It is now possible to extend the functionality of some Guile
5345 primitives by letting them defer a call to a GOOPS generic function on
5346 argument mismatch. This means that there is no loss of efficiency in
5351 (use-modules (oop goops)) ; Must be GOOPS version 0.2.
5352 (define-method + ((x <string>) (y <string>))
5353 (string-append x y))
5355 + will still be as efficient as usual in numerical calculations, but
5356 can also be used for concatenating strings.
5358 Who will be the first one to extend Guile's numerical tower to
5359 rationals? :) [OK, there a few other things to fix before this can
5360 be made in a clean way.]
5362 *** New snarf macros for defining primitives: SCM_GPROC, SCM_GPROC1
5364 New macro: SCM_GPROC (CNAME, SNAME, REQ, OPT, VAR, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5366 New macro: SCM_GPROC1 (CNAME, SNAME, TYPE, CFUNC, GENERIC)
5368 These do the same job as SCM_PROC and SCM_PROC1, but they also define
5369 a variable GENERIC which can be used by the dispatch macros below.
5371 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5373 *** New macros for forwarding control to a generic on arg type error
5375 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_1 (GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5377 New macro: SCM_WTA_DISPATCH_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5379 These correspond to the scm_wta function call, and have the same
5380 behaviour until the user has called the GOOPS primitive
5381 `enable-primitive-generic!'. After that, these macros will apply the
5382 generic function GENERIC to the argument(s) instead of calling
5385 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5387 *** New macros for argument testing with generic dispatch
5389 New macro: SCM_GASSERT1 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, POS, SUBR)
5391 New macro: SCM_GASSERT2 (COND, GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, POS, SUBR)
5393 These correspond to the SCM_ASSERT macro, but will defer control to
5394 GENERIC on error after `enable-primitive-generic!' has been called.
5396 [This is experimental code which may change soon.]
5398 ** New function: SCM scm_eval_body (SCM body, SCM env)
5400 Evaluates the body of a special form.
5402 ** The internal representation of struct's has changed
5404 Previously, four slots were allocated for the procedure(s) of entities
5405 and operators. The motivation for this representation had to do with
5406 the structure of the evaluator, the wish to support tail-recursive
5407 generic functions, and efficiency. Since the generic function
5408 dispatch mechanism has changed, there is no longer a need for such an
5409 expensive representation, and the representation has been simplified.
5411 This should not make any difference for most users.
5413 ** GOOPS support has been cleaned up.
5415 Some code has been moved from eval.c to objects.c and code in both of
5416 these compilation units has been cleaned up and better structured.
5418 *** New functions for applying generic functions
5420 New function: SCM scm_apply_generic (GENERIC, ARGS)
5421 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_0 (GENERIC)
5422 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_1 (GENERIC, ARG1)
5423 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_2 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2)
5424 New function: SCM scm_call_generic_3 (GENERIC, ARG1, ARG2, ARG3)
5426 ** Deprecated function: scm_make_named_hook
5428 It is now replaced by:
5430 ** New function: SCM scm_create_hook (const char *name, int arity)
5432 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
5433 binds a variable named NAME to it.
5435 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
5437 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module.
5438 This might change when we get the new module system.
5440 [The behaviour is identical to scm_make_named_hook.]
5444 Changes since Guile 1.3:
5446 * Changes to mailing lists
5448 ** Some of the Guile mailing lists have moved to sourceware.cygnus.com.
5450 See the README file to find current addresses for all the Guile
5453 * Changes to the distribution
5455 ** Readline support is no longer included with Guile by default.
5457 Based on the different license terms of Guile and Readline, we
5458 concluded that Guile should not *by default* cause the linking of
5459 Readline into an application program. Readline support is now offered
5460 as a separate module, which is linked into an application only when
5461 you explicitly specify it.
5463 Although Guile is GNU software, its distribution terms add a special
5464 exception to the usual GNU General Public License (GPL). Guile's
5465 license includes a clause that allows you to link Guile with non-free
5466 programs. We add this exception so as not to put Guile at a
5467 disadvantage vis-a-vis other extensibility packages that support other
5470 In contrast, the GNU Readline library is distributed under the GNU
5471 General Public License pure and simple. This means that you may not
5472 link Readline, even dynamically, into an application unless it is
5473 distributed under a free software license that is compatible the GPL.
5475 Because of this difference in distribution terms, an application that
5476 can use Guile may not be able to use Readline. Now users will be
5477 explicitly offered two independent decisions about the use of these
5480 You can activate the readline support by issuing
5482 (use-modules (readline-activator))
5485 from your ".guile" file, for example.
5487 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
5489 ** All builtins now print as primitives.
5490 Previously builtin procedures not belonging to the fundamental subr
5491 types printed as #<compiled closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>.
5492 Now, they print as #<primitive-procedure NAME>.
5494 ** Backtraces slightly more intelligible.
5495 gsubr-apply and macro transformer application frames no longer appear
5498 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
5500 ** Guile now correctly handles internal defines by rewriting them into
5501 their equivalent letrec. Previously, internal defines would
5502 incrementally add to the innermost environment, without checking
5503 whether the restrictions specified in RnRS were met. This lead to the
5504 correct behaviour when these restriction actually were met, but didn't
5505 catch all illegal uses. Such an illegal use could lead to crashes of
5506 the Guile interpreter or or other unwanted results. An example of
5507 incorrect internal defines that made Guile behave erratically:
5519 The problem with this example is that the definition of `c' uses the
5520 value of `b' directly. This confuses the meoization machine of Guile
5521 so that the second call of `b' (this time in a larger environment that
5522 also contains bindings for `c' and `d') refers to the binding of `c'
5523 instead of `a'. You could also make Guile crash with a variation on
5528 (define (b flag) (if flag a 1))
5529 (define c (1+ (b flag)))
5537 From now on, Guile will issue an `Unbound variable: b' error message
5542 A hook contains a list of functions which should be called on
5543 particular occasions in an existing program. Hooks are used for
5546 A window manager might have a hook before-window-map-hook. The window
5547 manager uses the function run-hooks to call all functions stored in
5548 before-window-map-hook each time a window is mapped. The user can
5549 store functions in the hook using add-hook!.
5551 In Guile, hooks are first class objects.
5553 *** New function: make-hook [N_ARGS]
5555 Return a hook for hook functions which can take N_ARGS arguments.
5556 The default value for N_ARGS is 0.
5558 (See also scm_make_named_hook below.)
5560 *** New function: add-hook! HOOK PROC [APPEND_P]
5562 Put PROC at the beginning of the list of functions stored in HOOK.
5563 If APPEND_P is supplied, and non-false, put PROC at the end instead.
5565 PROC must be able to take the number of arguments specified when the
5568 If PROC already exists in HOOK, then remove it first.
5570 *** New function: remove-hook! HOOK PROC
5572 Remove PROC from the list of functions in HOOK.
5574 *** New function: reset-hook! HOOK
5576 Clear the list of hook functions stored in HOOK.
5578 *** New function: run-hook HOOK ARG1 ...
5580 Run all hook functions stored in HOOK with arguments ARG1 ... .
5581 The number of arguments supplied must correspond to the number given
5582 when the hook was created.
5584 ** The function `dynamic-link' now takes optional keyword arguments.
5585 The only keyword argument that is currently defined is `:global
5586 BOOL'. With it, you can control whether the shared library will be
5587 linked in global mode or not. In global mode, the symbols from the
5588 linked library can be used to resolve references from other
5589 dynamically linked libraries. In non-global mode, the linked
5590 library is essentially invisible and can only be accessed via
5591 `dynamic-func', etc. The default is now to link in global mode.
5592 Previously, the default has been non-global mode.
5594 The `#:global' keyword is only effective on platforms that support
5595 the dlopen family of functions.
5597 ** New function `provided?'
5599 - Function: provided? FEATURE
5600 Return true iff FEATURE is supported by this installation of
5601 Guile. FEATURE must be a symbol naming a feature; the global
5602 variable `*features*' is a list of available features.
5604 ** Changes to the module (ice-9 expect):
5606 *** The expect-strings macro now matches `$' in a regular expression
5607 only at a line-break or end-of-file by default. Previously it would
5608 match the end of the string accumulated so far. The old behaviour
5609 can be obtained by setting the variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5612 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable `expect-strings-exec-flags'
5613 for the regexp-exec flags. If `regexp/noteol' is included, then `$'
5614 in a regular expression will still match before a line-break or
5615 end-of-file. The default is `regexp/noteol'.
5617 *** The expect-strings macro now uses a variable
5618 `expect-strings-compile-flags' for the flags to be supplied to
5619 `make-regexp'. The default is `regexp/newline', which was previously
5622 *** The expect macro now supplies two arguments to a match procedure:
5623 the current accumulated string and a flag to indicate whether
5624 end-of-file has been reached. Previously only the string was supplied.
5625 If end-of-file is reached, the match procedure will be called an
5626 additional time with the same accumulated string as the previous call
5627 but with the flag set.
5629 ** New module (ice-9 format), implementing the Common Lisp `format' function.
5631 This code, and the documentation for it that appears here, was
5632 borrowed from SLIB, with minor adaptations for Guile.
5634 - Function: format DESTINATION FORMAT-STRING . ARGUMENTS
5635 An almost complete implementation of Common LISP format description
5636 according to the CL reference book `Common LISP' from Guy L.
5637 Steele, Digital Press. Backward compatible to most of the
5638 available Scheme format implementations.
5640 Returns `#t', `#f' or a string; has side effect of printing
5641 according to FORMAT-STRING. If DESTINATION is `#t', the output is
5642 to the current output port and `#t' is returned. If DESTINATION
5643 is `#f', a formatted string is returned as the result of the call.
5644 NEW: If DESTINATION is a string, DESTINATION is regarded as the
5645 format string; FORMAT-STRING is then the first argument and the
5646 output is returned as a string. If DESTINATION is a number, the
5647 output is to the current error port if available by the
5648 implementation. Otherwise DESTINATION must be an output port and
5651 FORMAT-STRING must be a string. In case of a formatting error
5652 format returns `#f' and prints a message on the current output or
5653 error port. Characters are output as if the string were output by
5654 the `display' function with the exception of those prefixed by a
5655 tilde (~). For a detailed description of the FORMAT-STRING syntax
5656 please consult a Common LISP format reference manual. For a test
5657 suite to verify this format implementation load `formatst.scm'.
5658 Please send bug reports to `lutzeb@cs.tu-berlin.de'.
5660 Note: `format' is not reentrant, i.e. only one `format'-call may
5661 be executed at a time.
5664 *** Format Specification (Format version 3.0)
5666 Please consult a Common LISP format reference manual for a detailed
5667 description of the format string syntax. For a demonstration of the
5668 implemented directives see `formatst.scm'.
5670 This implementation supports directive parameters and modifiers (`:'
5671 and `@' characters). Multiple parameters must be separated by a comma
5672 (`,'). Parameters can be numerical parameters (positive or negative),
5673 character parameters (prefixed by a quote character (`''), variable
5674 parameters (`v'), number of rest arguments parameter (`#'), empty and
5675 default parameters. Directive characters are case independent. The
5676 general form of a directive is:
5678 DIRECTIVE ::= ~{DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER,}[:][@]DIRECTIVE-CHARACTER
5680 DIRECTIVE-PARAMETER ::= [ [-|+]{0-9}+ | 'CHARACTER | v | # ]
5682 *** Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5684 Documentation syntax: Uppercase characters represent the
5685 corresponding control directive characters. Lowercase characters
5686 represent control directive parameter descriptions.
5689 Any (print as `display' does).
5693 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARA'
5697 S-expression (print as `write' does).
5701 `~MINCOL,COLINC,MINPAD,PADCHARS'
5707 print number sign always.
5710 print comma separated.
5712 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARD'
5718 print number sign always.
5721 print comma separated.
5723 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARX'
5729 print number sign always.
5732 print comma separated.
5734 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARO'
5740 print number sign always.
5743 print comma separated.
5745 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARB'
5750 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHARR'
5754 print a number as a Roman numeral.
5757 print a number as an "old fashioned" Roman numeral.
5760 print a number as an ordinal English number.
5763 print a number as a cardinal English number.
5768 prints `y' and `ies'.
5771 as `~P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5774 as `~@P but jumps 1 argument backward.'
5779 prints a character as the reader can understand it (i.e. `#\'
5783 prints a character as emacs does (eg. `^C' for ASCII 03).
5786 Fixed-format floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN).
5787 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHARF'
5789 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5792 Exponential floating-point (prints a flonum like MMM.NNN`E'EE).
5793 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARE'
5795 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5798 General floating-point (prints a flonum either fixed or
5800 `~WIDTH,DIGITS,EXPONENTDIGITS,SCALE,OVERFLOWCHAR,PADCHAR,EXPONENTCHARG'
5802 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5805 Dollars floating-point (prints a flonum in fixed with signs
5807 `~DIGITS,SCALE,WIDTH,PADCHAR$'
5809 If the number is positive a plus sign is printed.
5812 A sign is always printed and appears before the padding.
5815 The sign appears before the padding.
5823 print newline if not at the beginning of the output line.
5825 prints `~&' and then N-1 newlines.
5830 print N page separators.
5840 newline is ignored, white space left.
5843 newline is left, white space ignored.
5848 relative tabulation.
5854 Indirection (expects indirect arguments as a list).
5856 extracts indirect arguments from format arguments.
5859 Case conversion (converts by `string-downcase').
5861 converts by `string-capitalize'.
5864 converts by `string-capitalize-first'.
5867 converts by `string-upcase'.
5870 Argument Jumping (jumps 1 argument forward).
5872 jumps N arguments forward.
5875 jumps 1 argument backward.
5878 jumps N arguments backward.
5881 jumps to the 0th argument.
5884 jumps to the Nth argument (beginning from 0)
5886 `~[STR0~;STR1~;...~;STRN~]'
5887 Conditional Expression (numerical clause conditional).
5889 take argument from N.
5892 true test conditional.
5895 if-else-then conditional.
5901 default clause follows.
5904 Iteration (args come from the next argument (a list)).
5906 at most N iterations.
5909 args from next arg (a list of lists).
5912 args from the rest of arguments.
5915 args from the rest args (lists).
5926 aborts if N <= M <= K
5928 *** Not Implemented CL Format Control Directives
5931 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5934 print `#f' as an empty list (see below).
5940 (sorry I don't understand its semantics completely)
5942 *** Extended, Replaced and Additional Control Directives
5944 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHD'
5945 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHX'
5946 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHO'
5947 `~MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHB'
5948 `~N,MINCOL,PADCHAR,COMMACHAR,COMMAWIDTHR'
5949 COMMAWIDTH is the number of characters between two comma
5953 print a R4RS complex number as `~F~@Fi' with passed parameters for
5957 Pretty print formatting of an argument for scheme code lists.
5963 Flushes the output if format DESTINATION is a port.
5966 Print a `#\space' character
5968 print N `#\space' characters.
5971 Print a `#\tab' character
5973 print N `#\tab' characters.
5976 Takes N as an integer representation for a character. No arguments
5977 are consumed. N is converted to a character by `integer->char'. N
5978 must be a positive decimal number.
5981 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5982 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5983 be processed by `read'.
5986 Print out readproof. Prints out internal objects represented as
5987 `#<...>' as strings `"#<...>"' so that the format output can always
5988 be processed by `read'.
5991 Prints information and a copyright notice on the format
5994 prints format version.
5997 may also print number strings, i.e. passing a number as a string
5998 and format it accordingly.
6000 *** Configuration Variables
6002 The format module exports some configuration variables to suit the
6003 systems and users needs. There should be no modification necessary for
6004 the configuration that comes with Guile. Format detects automatically
6005 if the running scheme system implements floating point numbers and
6008 format:symbol-case-conv
6009 Symbols are converted by `symbol->string' so the case type of the
6010 printed symbols is implementation dependent.
6011 `format:symbol-case-conv' is a one arg closure which is either
6012 `#f' (no conversion), `string-upcase', `string-downcase' or
6013 `string-capitalize'. (default `#f')
6015 format:iobj-case-conv
6016 As FORMAT:SYMBOL-CASE-CONV but applies for the representation of
6017 implementation internal objects. (default `#f')
6020 The character prefixing the exponent value in `~E' printing.
6023 *** Compatibility With Other Format Implementations
6029 Downward compatible except for padding support and `~A', `~S',
6030 `~P', `~X' uppercase printing. SLIB format 1.4 uses C-style
6031 `printf' padding support which is completely replaced by the CL
6032 `format' padding style.
6035 Downward compatible except for `~', which is not documented
6036 (ignores all characters inside the format string up to a newline
6037 character). (7.1 implements `~a', `~s', ~NEWLINE, `~~', `~%',
6038 numerical and variable parameters and `:/@' modifiers in the CL
6042 Downward compatible except for `~A' and `~S' which print in
6043 uppercase. (Elk implements `~a', `~s', `~~', and `~%' (no
6044 directive parameters or modifiers)).
6047 Downward compatible except for an optional destination parameter:
6048 S2C accepts a format call without a destination which returns a
6049 formatted string. This is equivalent to a #f destination in S2C.
6050 (S2C implements `~a', `~s', `~c', `~%', and `~~' (no directive
6051 parameters or modifiers)).
6054 ** Changes to string-handling functions.
6056 These functions were added to support the (ice-9 format) module, above.
6058 *** New function: string-upcase STRING
6059 *** New function: string-downcase STRING
6061 These are non-destructive versions of the existing string-upcase! and
6062 string-downcase! functions.
6064 *** New function: string-capitalize! STRING
6065 *** New function: string-capitalize STRING
6067 These functions convert the first letter of each word in the string to
6070 (string-capitalize "howdy there")
6073 As with the other functions, string-capitalize! modifies the string in
6074 place, while string-capitalize returns a modified copy of its argument.
6076 *** New function: string-ci->symbol STRING
6078 Return a symbol whose name is STRING, but having the same case as if
6079 the symbol had be read by `read'.
6081 Guile can be configured to be sensitive or insensitive to case
6082 differences in Scheme identifiers. If Guile is case-insensitive, all
6083 symbols are converted to lower case on input. The `string-ci->symbol'
6084 function returns a symbol whose name in STRING, transformed as Guile
6085 would if STRING were input.
6087 *** New function: substring-move! STRING1 START END STRING2 START
6089 Copy the substring of STRING1 from START (inclusive) to END
6090 (exclusive) to STRING2 at START. STRING1 and STRING2 may be the same
6091 string, and the source and destination areas may overlap; in all
6092 cases, the function behaves as if all the characters were copied
6095 *** Extended functions: substring-move-left! substring-move-right!
6097 These functions now correctly copy arbitrarily overlapping substrings;
6098 they are both synonyms for substring-move!.
6101 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-long), with the function `getopt-long'.
6103 getopt-long is a function for parsing command-line arguments in a
6104 manner consistent with other GNU programs.
6106 (getopt-long ARGS GRAMMAR)
6107 Parse the arguments ARGS according to the argument list grammar GRAMMAR.
6109 ARGS should be a list of strings. Its first element should be the
6110 name of the program; subsequent elements should be the arguments
6111 that were passed to the program on the command line. The
6112 `program-arguments' procedure returns a list of this form.
6114 GRAMMAR is a list of the form:
6115 ((OPTION (PROPERTY VALUE) ...) ...)
6117 Each OPTION should be a symbol. `getopt-long' will accept a
6118 command-line option named `--OPTION'.
6119 Each option can have the following (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs:
6121 (single-char CHAR) --- Accept `-CHAR' as a single-character
6122 equivalent to `--OPTION'. This is how to specify traditional
6124 (required? BOOL) --- If BOOL is true, the option is required.
6125 getopt-long will raise an error if it is not found in ARGS.
6126 (value BOOL) --- If BOOL is #t, the option accepts a value; if
6127 it is #f, it does not; and if it is the symbol
6128 `optional', the option may appear in ARGS with or
6130 (predicate FUNC) --- If the option accepts a value (i.e. you
6131 specified `(value #t)' for this option), then getopt
6132 will apply FUNC to the value, and throw an exception
6133 if it returns #f. FUNC should be a procedure which
6134 accepts a string and returns a boolean value; you may
6135 need to use quasiquotes to get it into GRAMMAR.
6137 The (PROPERTY VALUE) pairs may occur in any order, but each
6138 property may occur only once. By default, options do not have
6139 single-character equivalents, are not required, and do not take
6142 In ARGS, single-character options may be combined, in the usual
6143 Unix fashion: ("-x" "-y") is equivalent to ("-xy"). If an option
6144 accepts values, then it must be the last option in the
6145 combination; the value is the next argument. So, for example, using
6146 the following grammar:
6147 ((apples (single-char #\a))
6148 (blimps (single-char #\b) (value #t))
6149 (catalexis (single-char #\c) (value #t)))
6150 the following argument lists would be acceptable:
6151 ("-a" "-b" "bang" "-c" "couth") ("bang" and "couth" are the values
6152 for "blimps" and "catalexis")
6153 ("-ab" "bang" "-c" "couth") (same)
6154 ("-ac" "couth" "-b" "bang") (same)
6155 ("-abc" "couth" "bang") (an error, since `-b' is not the
6156 last option in its combination)
6158 If an option's value is optional, then `getopt-long' decides
6159 whether it has a value by looking at what follows it in ARGS. If
6160 the next element is a string, and it does not appear to be an
6161 option itself, then that string is the option's value.
6163 The value of a long option can appear as the next element in ARGS,
6164 or it can follow the option name, separated by an `=' character.
6165 Thus, using the same grammar as above, the following argument lists
6167 ("--apples" "Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6168 ("--apples=Braeburn" "--blimps" "Goodyear")
6169 ("--blimps" "Goodyear" "--apples=Braeburn")
6171 If the option "--" appears in ARGS, argument parsing stops there;
6172 subsequent arguments are returned as ordinary arguments, even if
6173 they resemble options. So, in the argument list:
6174 ("--apples" "Granny Smith" "--" "--blimp" "Goodyear")
6175 `getopt-long' will recognize the `apples' option as having the
6176 value "Granny Smith", but it will not recognize the `blimp'
6177 option; it will return the strings "--blimp" and "Goodyear" as
6178 ordinary argument strings.
6180 The `getopt-long' function returns the parsed argument list as an
6181 assocation list, mapping option names --- the symbols from GRAMMAR
6182 --- onto their values, or #t if the option does not accept a value.
6183 Unused options do not appear in the alist.
6185 All arguments that are not the value of any option are returned
6186 as a list, associated with the empty list.
6188 `getopt-long' throws an exception if:
6189 - it finds an unrecognized option in ARGS
6190 - a required option is omitted
6191 - an option that requires an argument doesn't get one
6192 - an option that doesn't accept an argument does get one (this can
6193 only happen using the long option `--opt=value' syntax)
6194 - an option predicate fails
6199 `((lockfile-dir (required? #t)
6202 (predicate ,file-is-directory?))
6203 (verbose (required? #f)
6206 (x-includes (single-char #\x))
6207 (rnet-server (single-char #\y)
6208 (predicate ,string?))))
6210 (getopt-long '("my-prog" "-vk" "/tmp" "foo1" "--x-includes=/usr/include"
6211 "--rnet-server=lamprod" "--" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6213 => ((() "foo1" "-fred" "foo2" "foo3")
6214 (rnet-server . "lamprod")
6215 (x-includes . "/usr/include")
6216 (lockfile-dir . "/tmp")
6219 ** The (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style) module is obsolete; use (ice-9 getopt-long).
6221 It will be removed in a few releases.
6223 ** New syntax: lambda*
6224 ** New syntax: define*
6225 ** New syntax: define*-public
6226 ** New syntax: defmacro*
6227 ** New syntax: defmacro*-public
6228 Guile now supports optional arguments.
6230 `lambda*', `define*', `define*-public', `defmacro*' and
6231 `defmacro*-public' are identical to the non-* versions except that
6232 they use an extended type of parameter list that has the following BNF
6233 syntax (parentheses are literal, square brackets indicate grouping,
6234 and `*', `+' and `?' have the usual meaning):
6236 ext-param-list ::= ( [identifier]* [#&optional [ext-var-decl]+]?
6237 [#&key [ext-var-decl]+ [#&allow-other-keys]?]?
6238 [[#&rest identifier]|[. identifier]]? ) | [identifier]
6240 ext-var-decl ::= identifier | ( identifier expression )
6242 The semantics are best illustrated with the following documentation
6243 and examples for `lambda*':
6246 lambda extended for optional and keyword arguments
6248 lambda* creates a procedure that takes optional arguments. These
6249 are specified by putting them inside brackets at the end of the
6250 paramater list, but before any dotted rest argument. For example,
6251 (lambda* (a b #&optional c d . e) '())
6252 creates a procedure with fixed arguments a and b, optional arguments c
6253 and d, and rest argument e. If the optional arguments are omitted
6254 in a call, the variables for them are unbound in the procedure. This
6255 can be checked with the bound? macro.
6257 lambda* can also take keyword arguments. For example, a procedure
6259 (lambda* (#&key xyzzy larch) '())
6260 can be called with any of the argument lists (#:xyzzy 11)
6261 (#:larch 13) (#:larch 42 #:xyzzy 19) (). Whichever arguments
6262 are given as keywords are bound to values.
6264 Optional and keyword arguments can also be given default values
6265 which they take on when they are not present in a call, by giving a
6266 two-item list in place of an optional argument, for example in:
6267 (lambda* (foo #&optional (bar 42) #&key (baz 73)) (list foo bar baz))
6268 foo is a fixed argument, bar is an optional argument with default
6269 value 42, and baz is a keyword argument with default value 73.
6270 Default value expressions are not evaluated unless they are needed
6271 and until the procedure is called.
6273 lambda* now supports two more special parameter list keywords.
6275 lambda*-defined procedures now throw an error by default if a
6276 keyword other than one of those specified is found in the actual
6277 passed arguments. However, specifying #&allow-other-keys
6278 immediately after the kyword argument declarations restores the
6279 previous behavior of ignoring unknown keywords. lambda* also now
6280 guarantees that if the same keyword is passed more than once, the
6281 last one passed is the one that takes effect. For example,
6282 ((lambda* (#&key (heads 0) (tails 0)) (display (list heads tails)))
6283 #:heads 37 #:tails 42 #:heads 99)
6284 would result in (99 47) being displayed.
6286 #&rest is also now provided as a synonym for the dotted syntax rest
6287 argument. The argument lists (a . b) and (a #&rest b) are equivalent in
6288 all respects to lambda*. This is provided for more similarity to DSSSL,
6289 MIT-Scheme and Kawa among others, as well as for refugees from other
6292 Further documentation may be found in the optargs.scm file itself.
6294 The optional argument module also exports the macros `let-optional',
6295 `let-optional*', `let-keywords', `let-keywords*' and `bound?'. These
6296 are not documented here because they may be removed in the future, but
6297 full documentation is still available in optargs.scm.
6299 ** New syntax: and-let*
6300 Guile now supports the `and-let*' form, described in the draft SRFI-2.
6302 Syntax: (land* (<clause> ...) <body> ...)
6303 Each <clause> should have one of the following forms:
6304 (<variable> <expression>)
6307 Each <variable> or <bound-variable> should be an identifier. Each
6308 <expression> should be a valid expression. The <body> should be a
6309 possibly empty sequence of expressions, like the <body> of a
6312 Semantics: A LAND* expression is evaluated by evaluating the
6313 <expression> or <bound-variable> of each of the <clause>s from
6314 left to right. The value of the first <expression> or
6315 <bound-variable> that evaluates to a false value is returned; the
6316 remaining <expression>s and <bound-variable>s are not evaluated.
6317 The <body> forms are evaluated iff all the <expression>s and
6318 <bound-variable>s evaluate to true values.
6320 The <expression>s and the <body> are evaluated in an environment
6321 binding each <variable> of the preceding (<variable> <expression>)
6322 clauses to the value of the <expression>. Later bindings
6323 shadow earlier bindings.
6325 Guile's and-let* macro was contributed by Michael Livshin.
6327 ** New sorting functions
6329 *** New function: sorted? SEQUENCE LESS?
6330 Returns `#t' when the sequence argument is in non-decreasing order
6331 according to LESS? (that is, there is no adjacent pair `... x y
6332 ...' for which `(less? y x)').
6334 Returns `#f' when the sequence contains at least one out-of-order
6335 pair. It is an error if the sequence is neither a list nor a
6338 *** New function: merge LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6339 LIST1 and LIST2 are sorted lists.
6340 Returns the sorted list of all elements in LIST1 and LIST2.
6342 Assume that the elements a and b1 in LIST1 and b2 in LIST2 are "equal"
6343 in the sense that (LESS? x y) --> #f for x, y in {a, b1, b2},
6344 and that a < b1 in LIST1. Then a < b1 < b2 in the result.
6345 (Here "<" should read "comes before".)
6347 *** New procedure: merge! LIST1 LIST2 LESS?
6348 Merges two lists, re-using the pairs of LIST1 and LIST2 to build
6349 the result. If the code is compiled, and LESS? constructs no new
6350 pairs, no pairs at all will be allocated. The first pair of the
6351 result will be either the first pair of LIST1 or the first pair of
6354 *** New function: sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6355 Accepts either a list or a vector, and returns a new sequence
6356 which is sorted. The new sequence is the same type as the input.
6357 Always `(sorted? (sort sequence less?) less?)'. The original
6358 sequence is not altered in any way. The new sequence shares its
6359 elements with the old one; no elements are copied.
6361 *** New procedure: sort! SEQUENCE LESS
6362 Returns its sorted result in the original boxes. No new storage is
6363 allocated at all. Proper usage: (set! slist (sort! slist <))
6365 *** New function: stable-sort SEQUENCE LESS?
6366 Similar to `sort' but stable. That is, if "equal" elements are
6367 ordered a < b in the original sequence, they will have the same order
6370 *** New function: stable-sort! SEQUENCE LESS?
6371 Similar to `sort!' but stable.
6372 Uses temporary storage when sorting vectors.
6374 *** New functions: sort-list, sort-list!
6375 Added for compatibility with scsh.
6377 ** New built-in random number support
6379 *** New function: random N [STATE]
6380 Accepts a positive integer or real N and returns a number of the
6381 same type between zero (inclusive) and N (exclusive). The values
6382 returned have a uniform distribution.
6384 The optional argument STATE must be of the type produced by
6385 `copy-random-state' or `seed->random-state'. It defaults to the value
6386 of the variable `*random-state*'. This object is used to maintain the
6387 state of the pseudo-random-number generator and is altered as a side
6388 effect of the `random' operation.
6390 *** New variable: *random-state*
6391 Holds a data structure that encodes the internal state of the
6392 random-number generator that `random' uses by default. The nature
6393 of this data structure is implementation-dependent. It may be
6394 printed out and successfully read back in, but may or may not
6395 function correctly as a random-number state object in another
6398 *** New function: copy-random-state [STATE]
6399 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6400 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6401 If argument STATE is given, a copy of it is returned. Otherwise a
6402 copy of `*random-state*' is returned.
6404 *** New function: seed->random-state SEED
6405 Returns a new object of type suitable for use as the value of the
6406 variable `*random-state*' and as a second argument to `random'.
6407 SEED is a string or a number. A new state is generated and
6408 initialized using SEED.
6410 *** New function: random:uniform [STATE]
6411 Returns an uniformly distributed inexact real random number in the
6412 range between 0 and 1.
6414 *** New procedure: random:solid-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6415 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose
6416 squares is less than 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in
6417 space of dimension N = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are
6418 uniformly distributed within the unit N-shere. The sum of the
6419 squares of the numbers is returned. VECT can be either a vector
6420 or a uniform vector of doubles.
6422 *** New procedure: random:hollow-sphere! VECT [STATE]
6423 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers the sum of whose squares
6424 is equal to 1.0. Thinking of VECT as coordinates in space of
6425 dimension n = `(vector-length VECT)', the coordinates are uniformly
6426 distributed over the surface of the unit n-shere. VECT can be either
6427 a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6429 *** New function: random:normal [STATE]
6430 Returns an inexact real in a normal distribution with mean 0 and
6431 standard deviation 1. For a normal distribution with mean M and
6432 standard deviation D use `(+ M (* D (random:normal)))'.
6434 *** New procedure: random:normal-vector! VECT [STATE]
6435 Fills VECT with inexact real random numbers which are independent and
6436 standard normally distributed (i.e., with mean 0 and variance 1).
6437 VECT can be either a vector or a uniform vector of doubles.
6439 *** New function: random:exp STATE
6440 Returns an inexact real in an exponential distribution with mean 1.
6441 For an exponential distribution with mean U use (* U (random:exp)).
6443 ** The range of logand, logior, logxor, logtest, and logbit? have changed.
6445 These functions now operate on numbers in the range of a C unsigned
6448 These functions used to operate on numbers in the range of a C signed
6449 long; however, this seems inappropriate, because Guile integers don't
6452 ** New function: make-guardian
6453 This is an implementation of guardians as described in
6454 R. Kent Dybvig, Carl Bruggeman, and David Eby (1993) "Guardians in a
6455 Generation-Based Garbage Collector" ACM SIGPLAN Conference on
6456 Programming Language Design and Implementation, June 1993
6457 ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/scheme-repository/doc/pubs/guardians.ps.gz
6459 ** New functions: delq1!, delv1!, delete1!
6460 These procedures behave similar to delq! and friends but delete only
6461 one object if at all.
6463 ** New function: unread-string STRING PORT
6464 Unread STRING to PORT, that is, push it back onto the port so that
6465 next read operation will work on the pushed back characters.
6467 ** unread-char can now be called multiple times
6468 If unread-char is called multiple times, the unread characters will be
6469 read again in last-in first-out order.
6471 ** the procedures uniform-array-read! and uniform-array-write! now
6472 work on any kind of port, not just ports which are open on a file.
6474 ** Now 'l' in a port mode requests line buffering.
6476 ** The procedure truncate-file now works on string ports as well
6477 as file ports. If the size argument is omitted, the current
6478 file position is used.
6480 ** new procedure: seek PORT/FDES OFFSET WHENCE
6481 The arguments are the same as for the old fseek procedure, but it
6482 works on string ports as well as random-access file ports.
6484 ** the fseek procedure now works on string ports, since it has been
6485 redefined using seek.
6487 ** the setvbuf procedure now uses a default size if mode is _IOFBF and
6488 size is not supplied.
6490 ** the newline procedure no longer flushes the port if it's not
6491 line-buffered: previously it did if it was the current output port.
6493 ** open-pipe and close-pipe are no longer primitive procedures, but
6494 an emulation can be obtained using `(use-modules (ice-9 popen))'.
6496 ** the freopen procedure has been removed.
6498 ** new procedure: drain-input PORT
6499 Drains PORT's read buffers (including any pushed-back characters)
6500 and returns the contents as a single string.
6502 ** New function: map-in-order PROC LIST1 LIST2 ...
6503 Version of `map' which guarantees that the procedure is applied to the
6504 lists in serial order.
6506 ** Renamed `serial-array-copy!' and `serial-array-map!' to
6507 `array-copy-in-order!' and `array-map-in-order!'. The old names are
6508 now obsolete and will go away in release 1.5.
6510 ** New syntax: collect BODY1 ...
6511 Version of `begin' which returns a list of the results of the body
6512 forms instead of the result of the last body form. In contrast to
6513 `begin', `collect' allows an empty body.
6515 ** New functions: read-history FILENAME, write-history FILENAME
6516 Read/write command line history from/to file. Returns #t on success
6517 and #f if an error occured.
6519 ** `ls' and `lls' in module (ice-9 ls) now handle no arguments.
6521 These procedures return a list of definitions available in the specified
6522 argument, a relative module reference. In the case of no argument,
6523 `(current-module)' is now consulted for definitions to return, instead
6524 of simply returning #f, the former behavior.
6526 ** The #/ syntax for lists is no longer supported.
6528 Earlier versions of Scheme accepted this syntax, but printed a
6531 ** Guile no longer consults the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable.
6533 Instead, you should set GUILE_LOAD_PATH to tell Guile where to find
6536 * Changes to the gh_ interface
6540 Now takes a second argument which is the result array. If this
6541 pointer is NULL, a new array is malloced (the old behaviour).
6543 ** gh_chars2byvect, gh_shorts2svect, gh_floats2fvect, gh_scm2chars,
6544 gh_scm2shorts, gh_scm2longs, gh_scm2floats
6548 * Changes to the scm_ interface
6550 ** Function: scm_make_named_hook (char* name, int n_args)
6552 Creates a hook in the same way as make-hook above but also
6553 binds a variable named NAME to it.
6555 This is the typical way of creating a hook from C code.
6557 Currently, the variable is created in the "current" module. This
6558 might change when we get the new module system.
6560 ** The smob interface
6562 The interface for creating smobs has changed. For documentation, see
6563 data-rep.info (made from guile-core/doc/data-rep.texi).
6565 *** Deprecated function: SCM scm_newsmob (scm_smobfuns *)
6567 >>> This function will be removed in 1.3.4. <<<
6571 *** Function: SCM scm_make_smob_type (const char *name, scm_sizet size)
6572 This function adds a new smob type, named NAME, with instance size
6573 SIZE to the system. The return value is a tag that is used in
6574 creating instances of the type. If SIZE is 0, then no memory will
6575 be allocated when instances of the smob are created, and nothing
6576 will be freed by the default free function.
6578 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_mark (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6579 This function sets the smob marking procedure for the smob type
6580 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6581 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6583 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_free (long tc, SCM (*mark) (SCM))
6584 This function sets the smob freeing procedure for the smob type
6585 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6586 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6588 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_print (tc, print)
6590 - Function: void scm_set_smob_print (long tc,
6591 scm_sizet (*print) (SCM,
6595 This function sets the smob printing procedure for the smob type
6596 specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6597 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6599 *** Function: void scm_set_smob_equalp (long tc, SCM (*equalp) (SCM, SCM))
6600 This function sets the smob equality-testing predicate for the
6601 smob type specified by the tag TC. TC is the tag returned by
6602 `scm_make_smob_type'.
6604 *** Macro: void SCM_NEWSMOB (SCM var, long tc, void *data)
6605 Make VALUE contain a smob instance of the type with type code TC and
6606 smob data DATA. VALUE must be previously declared as C type `SCM'.
6608 *** Macro: fn_returns SCM_RETURN_NEWSMOB (long tc, void *data)
6609 This macro expands to a block of code that creates a smob instance
6610 of the type with type code TC and smob data DATA, and returns that
6611 `SCM' value. It should be the last piece of code in a block.
6613 ** The interfaces for using I/O ports and implementing port types
6614 (ptobs) have changed significantly. The new interface is based on
6615 shared access to buffers and a new set of ptob procedures.
6617 *** scm_newptob has been removed
6621 *** Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (type_name, fill_buffer, write_flush)
6623 - Function: SCM scm_make_port_type (char *type_name,
6624 int (*fill_buffer) (SCM port),
6625 void (*write_flush) (SCM port));
6627 Similarly to the new smob interface, there is a set of function
6628 setters by which the user can customize the behaviour of his port
6629 type. See ports.h (scm_set_port_XXX).
6631 ** scm_strport_to_string: New function: creates a new string from
6632 a string port's buffer.
6634 ** Plug in interface for random number generators
6635 The variable `scm_the_rng' in random.c contains a value and three
6636 function pointers which together define the current random number
6637 generator being used by the Scheme level interface and the random
6638 number library functions.
6640 The user is free to replace the default generator with the generator
6643 *** Variable: size_t scm_the_rng.rstate_size
6644 The size of the random state type used by the current RNG
6647 *** Function: unsigned long scm_the_rng.random_bits (scm_rstate *STATE)
6648 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6650 *** Function: void scm_the_rng.init_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE, chars *S, int N)
6651 Seed random state STATE using string S of length N.
6653 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_the_rng.copy_rstate (scm_rstate *STATE)
6654 Given random state STATE, return a malloced copy.
6657 The default RNG is the MWC (Multiply With Carry) random number
6658 generator described by George Marsaglia at the Department of
6659 Statistics and Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, The
6660 Florida State University (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo).
6662 It uses 64 bits, has a period of 4578426017172946943 (4.6e18), and
6663 passes all tests in the DIEHARD test suite
6664 (http://stat.fsu.edu/~geo/diehard.html). The generation of 32 bits
6665 costs one multiply and one add on platforms which either supports long
6666 longs (gcc does this on most systems) or have 64 bit longs. The cost
6667 is four multiply on other systems but this can be optimized by writing
6668 scm_i_uniform32 in assembler.
6670 These functions are provided through the scm_the_rng interface for use
6671 by libguile and the application.
6673 *** Function: unsigned long scm_i_uniform32 (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6674 Given the random STATE, return 32 random bits.
6675 Don't use this function directly. Instead go through the plugin
6676 interface (see "Plug in interface" above).
6678 *** Function: void scm_i_init_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE, char *SEED, int N)
6679 Initialize STATE using SEED of length N.
6681 *** Function: scm_i_rstate *scm_i_copy_rstate (scm_i_rstate *STATE)
6682 Return a malloc:ed copy of STATE. This function can easily be re-used
6683 in the interfaces to other RNGs.
6685 ** Random number library functions
6686 These functions use the current RNG through the scm_the_rng interface.
6687 It might be a good idea to use these functions from your C code so
6688 that only one random generator is used by all code in your program.
6690 The default random state is stored in:
6692 *** Variable: SCM scm_var_random_state
6693 Contains the vcell of the Scheme variable "*random-state*" which is
6694 used as default state by all random number functions in the Scheme
6699 double x = scm_c_uniform01 (SCM_RSTATE (SCM_CDR (scm_var_random_state)));
6701 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_default_rstate (void)
6702 This is a convenience function which returns the value of
6703 scm_var_random_state. An error message is generated if this value
6704 isn't a random state.
6706 *** Function: scm_rstate *scm_c_make_rstate (char *SEED, int LENGTH)
6707 Make a new random state from the string SEED of length LENGTH.
6709 It is generally not a good idea to use multiple random states in a
6710 program. While subsequent random numbers generated from one random
6711 state are guaranteed to be reasonably independent, there is no such
6712 guarantee for numbers generated from different random states.
6714 *** Macro: unsigned long scm_c_uniform32 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6715 Return 32 random bits.
6717 *** Function: double scm_c_uniform01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6718 Return a sample from the uniform(0,1) distribution.
6720 *** Function: double scm_c_normal01 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6721 Return a sample from the normal(0,1) distribution.
6723 *** Function: double scm_c_exp1 (scm_rstate *STATE)
6724 Return a sample from the exp(1) distribution.
6726 *** Function: unsigned long scm_c_random (scm_rstate *STATE, unsigned long M)
6727 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6729 *** Function: SCM scm_c_random_bignum (scm_rstate *STATE, SCM M)
6730 Return a sample from the discrete uniform(0,M) distribution.
6731 M must be a bignum object. The returned value may be an INUM.
6735 Changes in Guile 1.3 (released Monday, October 19, 1998):
6737 * Changes to the distribution
6739 ** We renamed the SCHEME_LOAD_PATH environment variable to GUILE_LOAD_PATH.
6740 To avoid conflicts, programs should name environment variables after
6741 themselves, except when there's a common practice establishing some
6744 For now, Guile supports both GUILE_LOAD_PATH and SCHEME_LOAD_PATH,
6745 giving the former precedence, and printing a warning message if the
6746 latter is set. Guile 1.4 will not recognize SCHEME_LOAD_PATH at all.
6748 ** The header files related to multi-byte characters have been removed.
6749 They were: libguile/extchrs.h and libguile/mbstrings.h. Any C code
6750 which referred to these explicitly will probably need to be rewritten,
6751 since the support for the variant string types has been removed; see
6754 ** The header files append.h and sequences.h have been removed. These
6755 files implemented non-R4RS operations which would encourage
6756 non-portable programming style and less easy-to-read code.
6758 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
6760 ** New procedures have been added to implement a "batch mode":
6762 *** Function: batch-mode?
6764 Returns a boolean indicating whether the interpreter is in batch
6767 *** Function: set-batch-mode?! ARG
6769 If ARG is true, switches the interpreter to batch mode. The `#f'
6770 case has not been implemented.
6772 ** Guile now provides full command-line editing, when run interactively.
6773 To use this feature, you must have the readline library installed.
6774 The Guile build process will notice it, and automatically include
6777 The readline library is available via anonymous FTP from any GNU
6778 mirror site; the canonical location is "ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu".
6780 ** the-last-stack is now a fluid.
6782 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
6784 ** You can now use the `guile-config' utility to build programs that use Guile.
6786 Guile now includes a command-line utility called `guile-config', which
6787 can provide information about how to compile and link programs that
6790 *** `guile-config compile' prints any C compiler flags needed to use Guile.
6791 You should include this command's output on the command line you use
6792 to compile C or C++ code that #includes the Guile header files. It's
6793 usually just a `-I' flag to help the compiler find the Guile headers.
6796 *** `guile-config link' prints any linker flags necessary to link with Guile.
6798 This command writes to its standard output a list of flags which you
6799 must pass to the linker to link your code against the Guile library.
6800 The flags include '-lguile' itself, any other libraries the Guile
6801 library depends upon, and any `-L' flags needed to help the linker
6802 find those libraries.
6804 For example, here is a Makefile rule that builds a program named 'foo'
6805 from the object files ${FOO_OBJECTS}, and links them against Guile:
6808 ${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${FOO_OBJECTS} `guile-config link` -o foo
6810 Previous Guile releases recommended that you use autoconf to detect
6811 which of a predefined set of libraries were present on your system.
6812 It is more robust to use `guile-config', since it records exactly which
6813 libraries the installed Guile library requires.
6815 This was originally called `build-guile', but was renamed to
6816 `guile-config' before Guile 1.3 was released, to be consistent with
6817 the analogous script for the GTK+ GUI toolkit, which is called
6821 ** Use the GUILE_FLAGS macro in your configure.in file to find Guile.
6823 If you are using the GNU autoconf package to configure your program,
6824 you can use the GUILE_FLAGS autoconf macro to call `guile-config'
6825 (described above) and gather the necessary values for use in your
6828 The GUILE_FLAGS macro expands to configure script code which runs the
6829 `guile-config' script, to find out where Guile's header files and
6830 libraries are installed. It sets two variables, marked for
6831 substitution, as by AC_SUBST.
6833 GUILE_CFLAGS --- flags to pass to a C or C++ compiler to build
6834 code that uses Guile header files. This is almost always just a
6837 GUILE_LDFLAGS --- flags to pass to the linker to link a
6838 program against Guile. This includes `-lguile' for the Guile
6839 library itself, any libraries that Guile itself requires (like
6840 -lqthreads), and so on. It may also include a -L flag to tell the
6841 compiler where to find the libraries.
6843 GUILE_FLAGS is defined in the file guile.m4, in the top-level
6844 directory of the Guile distribution. You can copy it into your
6845 package's aclocal.m4 file, and then use it in your configure.in file.
6847 If you are using the `aclocal' program, distributed with GNU automake,
6848 to maintain your aclocal.m4 file, the Guile installation process
6849 installs guile.m4 where aclocal will find it. All you need to do is
6850 use GUILE_FLAGS in your configure.in file, and then run `aclocal';
6851 this will copy the definition of GUILE_FLAGS into your aclocal.m4
6855 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
6857 ** Multi-byte strings have been removed, as have multi-byte and wide
6858 ports. We felt that these were the wrong approach to
6859 internationalization support.
6861 ** New function: readline [PROMPT]
6862 Read a line from the terminal, and allow the user to edit it,
6863 prompting with PROMPT. READLINE provides a large set of Emacs-like
6864 editing commands, lets the user recall previously typed lines, and
6865 works on almost every kind of terminal, including dumb terminals.
6867 READLINE assumes that the cursor is at the beginning of the line when
6868 it is invoked. Thus, you can't print a prompt yourself, and then call
6869 READLINE; you need to package up your prompt as a string, pass it to
6870 the function, and let READLINE print the prompt itself. This is
6871 because READLINE needs to know the prompt's screen width.
6873 For Guile to provide this function, you must have the readline
6874 library, version 2.1 or later, installed on your system. Readline is
6875 available via anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu in pub/gnu, or from
6876 any GNU mirror site.
6878 See also ADD-HISTORY function.
6880 ** New function: add-history STRING
6881 Add STRING as the most recent line in the history used by the READLINE
6882 command. READLINE does not add lines to the history itself; you must
6883 call ADD-HISTORY to make previous input available to the user.
6885 ** The behavior of the read-line function has changed.
6887 This function now uses standard C library functions to read the line,
6888 for speed. This means that it doesn not respect the value of
6889 scm-line-incrementors; it assumes that lines are delimited with
6892 (Note that this is read-line, the function that reads a line of text
6893 from a port, not readline, the function that reads a line from a
6894 terminal, providing full editing capabilities.)
6896 ** New module (ice-9 getopt-gnu-style): Parse command-line arguments.
6898 This module provides some simple argument parsing. It exports one
6901 Function: getopt-gnu-style ARG-LS
6902 Parse a list of program arguments into an alist of option
6905 Each item in the list of program arguments is examined to see if
6906 it meets the syntax of a GNU long-named option. An argument like
6907 `--MUMBLE' produces an element of the form (MUMBLE . #t) in the
6908 returned alist, where MUMBLE is a keyword object with the same
6909 name as the argument. An argument like `--MUMBLE=FROB' produces
6910 an element of the form (MUMBLE . FROB), where FROB is a string.
6912 As a special case, the returned alist also contains a pair whose
6913 car is the symbol `rest'. The cdr of this pair is a list
6914 containing all the items in the argument list that are not options
6915 of the form mentioned above.
6917 The argument `--' is treated specially: all items in the argument
6918 list appearing after such an argument are not examined, and are
6919 returned in the special `rest' list.
6921 This function does not parse normal single-character switches.
6922 You will need to parse them out of the `rest' list yourself.
6924 ** The read syntax for byte vectors and short vectors has changed.
6926 Instead of #bytes(...), write #y(...).
6928 Instead of #short(...), write #h(...).
6930 This may seem nutty, but, like the other uniform vectors, byte vectors
6931 and short vectors want to have the same print and read syntax (and,
6932 more basic, want to have read syntax!). Changing the read syntax to
6933 use multiple characters after the hash sign breaks with the
6934 conventions used in R5RS and the conventions used for the other
6935 uniform vectors. It also introduces complexity in the current reader,
6936 both on the C and Scheme levels. (The Right solution is probably to
6937 change the syntax and prototypes for uniform vectors entirely.)
6940 ** The new module (ice-9 session) provides useful interactive functions.
6942 *** New procedure: (apropos REGEXP OPTION ...)
6944 Display a list of top-level variables whose names match REGEXP, and
6945 the modules they are imported from. Each OPTION should be one of the
6948 value --- Show the value of each matching variable.
6949 shadow --- Show bindings shadowed by subsequently imported modules.
6950 full --- Same as both `shadow' and `value'.
6954 guile> (apropos "trace" 'full)
6955 debug: trace #<procedure trace args>
6956 debug: untrace #<procedure untrace args>
6957 the-scm-module: display-backtrace #<compiled-closure #<primitive-procedure gsubr-apply>>
6958 the-scm-module: before-backtrace-hook ()
6959 the-scm-module: backtrace #<primitive-procedure backtrace>
6960 the-scm-module: after-backtrace-hook ()
6961 the-scm-module: has-shown-backtrace-hint? #f
6964 ** There are new functions and syntax for working with macros.
6966 Guile implements macros as a special object type. Any variable whose
6967 top-level binding is a macro object acts as a macro. The macro object
6968 specifies how the expression should be transformed before evaluation.
6970 *** Macro objects now print in a reasonable way, resembling procedures.
6972 *** New function: (macro? OBJ)
6973 True iff OBJ is a macro object.
6975 *** New function: (primitive-macro? OBJ)
6976 Like (macro? OBJ), but true only if OBJ is one of the Guile primitive
6977 macro transformers, implemented in eval.c rather than Scheme code.
6979 Why do we have this function?
6980 - For symmetry with procedure? and primitive-procedure?,
6981 - to allow custom print procedures to tell whether a macro is
6982 primitive, and display it differently, and
6983 - to allow compilers and user-written evaluators to distinguish
6984 builtin special forms from user-defined ones, which could be
6987 *** New function: (macro-type OBJ)
6988 Return a value indicating what kind of macro OBJ is. Possible return
6991 The symbol `syntax' --- a macro created by procedure->syntax.
6992 The symbol `macro' --- a macro created by procedure->macro.
6993 The symbol `macro!' --- a macro created by procedure->memoizing-macro.
6994 The boolean #f --- if OBJ is not a macro object.
6996 *** New function: (macro-name MACRO)
6997 Return the name of the macro object MACRO's procedure, as returned by
7000 *** New function: (macro-transformer MACRO)
7001 Return the transformer procedure for MACRO.
7003 *** New syntax: (use-syntax MODULE ... TRANSFORMER)
7005 Specify a new macro expander to use in the current module. Each
7006 MODULE is a module name, with the same meaning as in the `use-modules'
7007 form; each named module's exported bindings are added to the current
7008 top-level environment. TRANSFORMER is an expression evaluated in the
7009 resulting environment which must yield a procedure to use as the
7010 module's eval transformer: every expression evaluated in this module
7011 is passed to this function, and the result passed to the Guile
7014 *** macro-eval! is removed. Use local-eval instead.
7016 ** Some magic has been added to the printer to better handle user
7017 written printing routines (like record printers, closure printers).
7019 The problem is that these user written routines must have access to
7020 the current `print-state' to be able to handle fancy things like
7021 detection of circular references. These print-states have to be
7022 passed to the builtin printing routines (display, write, etc) to
7023 properly continue the print chain.
7025 We didn't want to change all existing print code so that it
7026 explicitly passes thru a print state in addition to a port. Instead,
7027 we extented the possible values that the builtin printing routines
7028 accept as a `port'. In addition to a normal port, they now also take
7029 a pair of a normal port and a print-state. Printing will go to the
7030 port and the print-state will be used to control the detection of
7031 circular references, etc. If the builtin function does not care for a
7032 print-state, it is simply ignored.
7034 User written callbacks are now called with such a pair as their
7035 `port', but because every function now accepts this pair as a PORT
7036 argument, you don't have to worry about that. In fact, it is probably
7037 safest to not check for these pairs.
7039 However, it is sometimes necessary to continue a print chain on a
7040 different port, for example to get a intermediate string
7041 representation of the printed value, mangle that string somehow, and
7042 then to finally print the mangled string. Use the new function
7044 inherit-print-state OLD-PORT NEW-PORT
7046 for this. It constructs a new `port' that prints to NEW-PORT but
7047 inherits the print-state of OLD-PORT.
7049 ** struct-vtable-offset renamed to vtable-offset-user
7051 ** New constants: vtable-index-layout, vtable-index-vtable, vtable-index-printer
7053 ** There is now a third optional argument to make-vtable-vtable
7054 (and fourth to make-struct) when constructing new types (vtables).
7055 This argument initializes field vtable-index-printer of the vtable.
7057 ** The detection of circular references has been extended to structs.
7058 That is, a structure that -- in the process of being printed -- prints
7059 itself does not lead to infinite recursion.
7061 ** There is now some basic support for fluids. Please read
7062 "libguile/fluid.h" to find out more. It is accessible from Scheme with
7063 the following functions and macros:
7065 Function: make-fluid
7067 Create a new fluid object. Fluids are not special variables or
7068 some other extension to the semantics of Scheme, but rather
7069 ordinary Scheme objects. You can store them into variables (that
7070 are still lexically scoped, of course) or into any other place you
7071 like. Every fluid has a initial value of `#f'.
7073 Function: fluid? OBJ
7075 Test whether OBJ is a fluid.
7077 Function: fluid-ref FLUID
7078 Function: fluid-set! FLUID VAL
7080 Access/modify the fluid FLUID. Modifications are only visible
7081 within the current dynamic root (that includes threads).
7083 Function: with-fluids* FLUIDS VALUES THUNK
7085 FLUIDS is a list of fluids and VALUES a corresponding list of
7086 values for these fluids. Before THUNK gets called the values are
7087 installed in the fluids and the old values of the fluids are
7088 saved in the VALUES list. When the flow of control leaves THUNK
7089 or reenters it, the values get swapped again. You might think of
7090 this as a `safe-fluid-excursion'. Note that the VALUES list is
7091 modified by `with-fluids*'.
7093 Macro: with-fluids ((FLUID VALUE) ...) FORM ...
7095 The same as `with-fluids*' but with a different syntax. It looks
7096 just like `let', but both FLUID and VALUE are evaluated. Remember,
7097 fluids are not special variables but ordinary objects. FLUID
7098 should evaluate to a fluid.
7100 ** Changes to system call interfaces:
7102 *** close-port, close-input-port and close-output-port now return a
7103 boolean instead of an `unspecified' object. #t means that the port
7104 was successfully closed, while #f means it was already closed. It is
7105 also now possible for these procedures to raise an exception if an
7106 error occurs (some errors from write can be delayed until close.)
7108 *** the first argument to chmod, fcntl, ftell and fseek can now be a
7111 *** the third argument to fcntl is now optional.
7113 *** the first argument to chown can now be a file descriptor or a port.
7115 *** the argument to stat can now be a port.
7117 *** The following new procedures have been added (most use scsh
7120 *** procedure: close PORT/FD
7121 Similar to close-port (*note close-port: Closing Ports.), but also
7122 works on file descriptors. A side effect of closing a file
7123 descriptor is that any ports using that file descriptor are moved
7124 to a different file descriptor and have their revealed counts set
7127 *** procedure: port->fdes PORT
7128 Returns the integer file descriptor underlying PORT. As a side
7129 effect the revealed count of PORT is incremented.
7131 *** procedure: fdes->ports FDES
7132 Returns a list of existing ports which have FDES as an underlying
7133 file descriptor, without changing their revealed counts.
7135 *** procedure: fdes->inport FDES
7136 Returns an existing input port which has FDES as its underlying
7137 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7138 Otherwise, returns a new input port with a revealed count of 1.
7140 *** procedure: fdes->outport FDES
7141 Returns an existing output port which has FDES as its underlying
7142 file descriptor, if one exists, and increments its revealed count.
7143 Otherwise, returns a new output port with a revealed count of 1.
7145 The next group of procedures perform a `dup2' system call, if NEWFD
7146 (an integer) is supplied, otherwise a `dup'. The file descriptor to be
7147 duplicated can be supplied as an integer or contained in a port. The
7148 type of value returned varies depending on which procedure is used.
7150 All procedures also have the side effect when performing `dup2' that
7151 any ports using NEWFD are moved to a different file descriptor and have
7152 their revealed counts set to zero.
7154 *** procedure: dup->fdes PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7155 Returns an integer file descriptor.
7157 *** procedure: dup->inport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7158 Returns a new input port using the new file descriptor.
7160 *** procedure: dup->outport PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7161 Returns a new output port using the new file descriptor.
7163 *** procedure: dup PORT/FD [NEWFD]
7164 Returns a new port if PORT/FD is a port, with the same mode as the
7165 supplied port, otherwise returns an integer file descriptor.
7167 *** procedure: dup->port PORT/FD MODE [NEWFD]
7168 Returns a new port using the new file descriptor. MODE supplies a
7169 mode string for the port (*note open-file: File Ports.).
7171 *** procedure: setenv NAME VALUE
7172 Modifies the environment of the current process, which is also the
7173 default environment inherited by child processes.
7175 If VALUE is `#f', then NAME is removed from the environment.
7176 Otherwise, the string NAME=VALUE is added to the environment,
7177 replacing any existing string with name matching NAME.
7179 The return value is unspecified.
7181 *** procedure: truncate-file OBJ SIZE
7182 Truncates the file referred to by OBJ to at most SIZE bytes. OBJ
7183 can be a string containing a file name or an integer file
7184 descriptor or port open for output on the file. The underlying
7185 system calls are `truncate' and `ftruncate'.
7187 The return value is unspecified.
7189 *** procedure: setvbuf PORT MODE [SIZE]
7190 Set the buffering mode for PORT. MODE can be:
7198 block buffered, using a newly allocated buffer of SIZE bytes.
7199 However if SIZE is zero or unspecified, the port will be made
7202 This procedure should not be used after I/O has been performed with
7205 Ports are usually block buffered by default, with a default buffer
7206 size. Procedures e.g., *Note open-file: File Ports, which accept a
7207 mode string allow `0' to be added to request an unbuffered port.
7209 *** procedure: fsync PORT/FD
7210 Copies any unwritten data for the specified output file descriptor
7211 to disk. If PORT/FD is a port, its buffer is flushed before the
7212 underlying file descriptor is fsync'd. The return value is
7215 *** procedure: open-fdes PATH FLAGS [MODES]
7216 Similar to `open' but returns a file descriptor instead of a port.
7218 *** procedure: execle PATH ENV [ARG] ...
7219 Similar to `execl', but the environment of the new process is
7220 specified by ENV, which must be a list of strings as returned by
7221 the `environ' procedure.
7223 This procedure is currently implemented using the `execve' system
7224 call, but we call it `execle' because of its Scheme calling
7227 *** procedure: strerror ERRNO
7228 Returns the Unix error message corresponding to ERRNO, an integer.
7230 *** procedure: primitive-exit [STATUS]
7231 Terminate the current process without unwinding the Scheme stack.
7232 This is would typically be useful after a fork. The exit status
7233 is STATUS if supplied, otherwise zero.
7235 *** procedure: times
7236 Returns an object with information about real and processor time.
7237 The following procedures accept such an object as an argument and
7238 return a selected component:
7241 The current real time, expressed as time units relative to an
7245 The CPU time units used by the calling process.
7248 The CPU time units used by the system on behalf of the
7252 The CPU time units used by terminated child processes of the
7253 calling process, whose status has been collected (e.g., using
7257 Similarly, the CPU times units used by the system on behalf of
7258 terminated child processes.
7260 ** Removed: list-length
7261 ** Removed: list-append, list-append!
7262 ** Removed: list-reverse, list-reverse!
7264 ** array-map renamed to array-map!
7266 ** serial-array-map renamed to serial-array-map!
7268 ** catch doesn't take #f as first argument any longer
7270 Previously, it was possible to pass #f instead of a key to `catch'.
7271 That would cause `catch' to pass a jump buffer object to the procedure
7272 passed as second argument. The procedure could then use this jump
7273 buffer objekt as an argument to throw.
7275 This mechanism has been removed since its utility doesn't motivate the
7276 extra complexity it introduces.
7278 ** The `#/' notation for lists now provokes a warning message from Guile.
7279 This syntax will be removed from Guile in the near future.
7281 To disable the warning message, set the GUILE_HUSH environment
7282 variable to any non-empty value.
7284 ** The newline character now prints as `#\newline', following the
7285 normal Scheme notation, not `#\nl'.
7287 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7289 ** The gh_enter function now takes care of loading the Guile startup files.
7290 gh_enter works by calling scm_boot_guile; see the remarks below.
7292 ** Function: void gh_write (SCM x)
7294 Write the printed representation of the scheme object x to the current
7295 output port. Corresponds to the scheme level `write'.
7297 ** gh_list_length renamed to gh_length.
7299 ** vector handling routines
7301 Several major changes. In particular, gh_vector() now resembles
7302 (vector ...) (with a caveat -- see manual), and gh_make_vector() now
7303 exists and behaves like (make-vector ...). gh_vset() and gh_vref()
7304 have been renamed gh_vector_set_x() and gh_vector_ref(). Some missing
7305 vector-related gh_ functions have been implemented.
7307 ** pair and list routines
7309 Implemented several of the R4RS pair and list functions that were
7312 ** gh_scm2doubles, gh_doubles2scm, gh_doubles2dvect
7314 New function. Converts double arrays back and forth between Scheme
7317 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7319 ** The function scm_boot_guile now takes care of loading the startup files.
7321 Guile's primary initialization function, scm_boot_guile, now takes
7322 care of loading `boot-9.scm', in the `ice-9' module, to initialize
7323 Guile, define the module system, and put together some standard
7324 bindings. It also loads `init.scm', which is intended to hold
7325 site-specific initialization code.
7327 Since Guile cannot operate properly until boot-9.scm is loaded, there
7328 is no reason to separate loading boot-9.scm from Guile's other
7329 initialization processes.
7331 This job used to be done by scm_compile_shell_switches, which didn't
7332 make much sense; in particular, it meant that people using Guile for
7333 non-shell-like applications had to jump through hoops to get Guile
7334 initialized properly.
7336 ** The function scm_compile_shell_switches no longer loads the startup files.
7337 Now, Guile always loads the startup files, whenever it is initialized;
7338 see the notes above for scm_boot_guile and scm_load_startup_files.
7340 ** Function: scm_load_startup_files
7341 This new function takes care of loading Guile's initialization file
7342 (`boot-9.scm'), and the site initialization file, `init.scm'. Since
7343 this is always called by the Guile initialization process, it's
7344 probably not too useful to call this yourself, but it's there anyway.
7346 ** The semantics of smob marking have changed slightly.
7348 The smob marking function (the `mark' member of the scm_smobfuns
7349 structure) is no longer responsible for setting the mark bit on the
7350 smob. The generic smob handling code in the garbage collector will
7351 set this bit. The mark function need only ensure that any other
7352 objects the smob refers to get marked.
7354 Note that this change means that the smob's GC8MARK bit is typically
7355 already set upon entry to the mark function. Thus, marking functions
7356 which look like this:
7359 if (SCM_GC8MARKP (ptr))
7361 SCM_SETGC8MARK (ptr);
7362 ... mark objects to which the smob refers ...
7365 are now incorrect, since they will return early, and fail to mark any
7366 other objects the smob refers to. Some code in the Guile library used
7369 ** The semantics of the I/O port functions in scm_ptobfuns have changed.
7371 If you have implemented your own I/O port type, by writing the
7372 functions required by the scm_ptobfuns and then calling scm_newptob,
7373 you will need to change your functions slightly.
7375 The functions in a scm_ptobfuns structure now expect the port itself
7376 as their argument; they used to expect the `stream' member of the
7377 port's scm_port_table structure. This allows functions in an
7378 scm_ptobfuns structure to easily access the port's cell (and any flags
7379 it its CAR), and the port's scm_port_table structure.
7381 Guile now passes the I/O port itself as the `port' argument in the
7382 following scm_ptobfuns functions:
7384 int (*free) (SCM port);
7385 int (*fputc) (int, SCM port);
7386 int (*fputs) (char *, SCM port);
7387 scm_sizet (*fwrite) SCM_P ((char *ptr,
7391 int (*fflush) (SCM port);
7392 int (*fgetc) (SCM port);
7393 int (*fclose) (SCM port);
7395 The interfaces to the `mark', `print', `equalp', and `fgets' methods
7398 If you have existing code which defines its own port types, it is easy
7399 to convert your code to the new interface; simply apply SCM_STREAM to
7400 the port argument to yield the value you code used to expect.
7402 Note that since both the port and the stream have the same type in the
7403 C code --- they are both SCM values --- the C compiler will not remind
7404 you if you forget to update your scm_ptobfuns functions.
7407 ** Function: int scm_internal_select (int fds,
7411 struct timeval *timeout);
7413 This is a replacement for the `select' function provided by the OS.
7414 It enables I/O blocking and sleeping to happen for one cooperative
7415 thread without blocking other threads. It also avoids busy-loops in
7416 these situations. It is intended that all I/O blocking and sleeping
7417 will finally go through this function. Currently, this function is
7418 only available on systems providing `gettimeofday' and `select'.
7420 ** Function: SCM scm_internal_stack_catch (SCM tag,
7421 scm_catch_body_t body,
7423 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7426 A new sibling to the other two C level `catch' functions
7427 scm_internal_catch and scm_internal_lazy_catch. Use it if you want
7428 the stack to be saved automatically into the variable `the-last-stack'
7429 (scm_the_last_stack_var) on error. This is necessary if you want to
7430 use advanced error reporting, such as calling scm_display_error and
7431 scm_display_backtrace. (They both take a stack object as argument.)
7433 ** Function: SCM scm_spawn_thread (scm_catch_body_t body,
7435 scm_catch_handler_t handler,
7438 Spawns a new thread. It does a job similar to
7439 scm_call_with_new_thread but takes arguments more suitable when
7440 spawning threads from application C code.
7442 ** The hook scm_error_callback has been removed. It was originally
7443 intended as a way for the user to install his own error handler. But
7444 that method works badly since it intervenes between throw and catch,
7445 thereby changing the semantics of expressions like (catch #t ...).
7446 The correct way to do it is to use one of the C level catch functions
7447 in throw.c: scm_internal_catch/lazy_catch/stack_catch.
7449 ** Removed functions:
7451 scm_obj_length, scm_list_length, scm_list_append, scm_list_append_x,
7452 scm_list_reverse, scm_list_reverse_x
7454 ** New macros: SCM_LISTn where n is one of the integers 0-9.
7456 These can be used for pretty list creation from C. The idea is taken
7457 from Erick Gallesio's STk.
7459 ** scm_array_map renamed to scm_array_map_x
7461 ** mbstrings are now removed
7463 This means that the type codes scm_tc7_mb_string and
7464 scm_tc7_mb_substring has been removed.
7466 ** scm_gen_putc, scm_gen_puts, scm_gen_write, and scm_gen_getc have changed.
7468 Since we no longer support multi-byte strings, these I/O functions
7469 have been simplified, and renamed. Here are their old names, and
7470 their new names and arguments:
7472 scm_gen_putc -> void scm_putc (int c, SCM port);
7473 scm_gen_puts -> void scm_puts (char *s, SCM port);
7474 scm_gen_write -> void scm_lfwrite (char *ptr, scm_sizet size, SCM port);
7475 scm_gen_getc -> void scm_getc (SCM port);
7478 ** The macros SCM_TYP7D and SCM_TYP7SD has been removed.
7480 ** The macro SCM_TYP7S has taken the role of the old SCM_TYP7D
7482 SCM_TYP7S now masks away the bit which distinguishes substrings from
7485 ** scm_catch_body_t: Backward incompatible change!
7487 Body functions to scm_internal_catch and friends do not any longer
7488 take a second argument. This is because it is no longer possible to
7489 pass a #f arg to catch.
7491 ** Calls to scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect now nest properly.
7493 The function scm_protect_object protects its argument from being freed
7494 by the garbage collector. scm_unprotect_object removes that
7497 These functions now nest properly. That is, for every object O, there
7498 is a counter which scm_protect_object(O) increments and
7499 scm_unprotect_object(O) decrements, if the counter is greater than
7500 zero. Every object's counter is zero when it is first created. If an
7501 object's counter is greater than zero, the garbage collector will not
7502 reclaim its storage.
7504 This allows you to use scm_protect_object in your code without
7505 worrying that some other function you call will call
7506 scm_unprotect_object, and allow it to be freed. Assuming that the
7507 functions you call are well-behaved, and unprotect only those objects
7508 they protect, you can follow the same rule and have confidence that
7509 objects will be freed only at appropriate times.
7512 Changes in Guile 1.2 (released Tuesday, June 24 1997):
7514 * Changes to the distribution
7516 ** Nightly snapshots are now available from ftp.red-bean.com.
7517 The old server, ftp.cyclic.com, has been relinquished to its rightful
7520 Nightly snapshots of the Guile development sources are now available via
7521 anonymous FTP from ftp.red-bean.com, as /pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz.
7523 Via the web, that's: ftp://ftp.red-bean.com/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7524 For getit, that's: ftp.red-bean.com:/pub/guile/guile-snap.tar.gz
7526 ** To run Guile without installing it, the procedure has changed a bit.
7528 If you used a separate build directory to compile Guile, you'll need
7529 to include the build directory in SCHEME_LOAD_PATH, as well as the
7530 source directory. See the `INSTALL' file for examples.
7532 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
7534 ** The standard Guile load path for Scheme code now includes
7535 $(datadir)/guile (usually /usr/local/share/guile). This means that
7536 you can install your own Scheme files there, and Guile will find them.
7537 (Previous versions of Guile only checked a directory whose name
7538 contained the Guile version number, so you had to re-install or move
7539 your Scheme sources each time you installed a fresh version of Guile.)
7541 The load path also includes $(datadir)/guile/site; we recommend
7542 putting individual Scheme files there. If you want to install a
7543 package with multiple source files, create a directory for them under
7546 ** Guile 1.2 will now use the Rx regular expression library, if it is
7547 installed on your system. When you are linking libguile into your own
7548 programs, this means you will have to link against -lguile, -lqt (if
7549 you configured Guile with thread support), and -lrx.
7551 If you are using autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your
7552 application, the following lines should suffice to add the appropriate
7553 libraries to your link command:
7555 ### Find Rx, quickthreads and libguile.
7556 AC_CHECK_LIB(rx, main)
7557 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
7558 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
7560 The Guile 1.2 distribution does not contain sources for the Rx
7561 library, as Guile 1.0 did. If you want to use Rx, you'll need to
7562 retrieve it from a GNU FTP site and install it separately.
7564 * Changes to Scheme functions and syntax
7566 ** The dynamic linking features of Guile are now enabled by default.
7567 You can disable them by giving the `--disable-dynamic-linking' option
7570 (dynamic-link FILENAME)
7572 Find the object file denoted by FILENAME (a string) and link it
7573 into the running Guile application. When everything works out,
7574 return a Scheme object suitable for representing the linked object
7575 file. Otherwise an error is thrown. How object files are
7576 searched is system dependent.
7578 (dynamic-object? VAL)
7580 Determine whether VAL represents a dynamically linked object file.
7582 (dynamic-unlink DYNOBJ)
7584 Unlink the indicated object file from the application. DYNOBJ
7585 should be one of the values returned by `dynamic-link'.
7587 (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7589 Search the C function indicated by FUNCTION (a string or symbol)
7590 in DYNOBJ and return some Scheme object that can later be used
7591 with `dynamic-call' to actually call this function. Right now,
7592 these Scheme objects are formed by casting the address of the
7593 function to `long' and converting this number to its Scheme
7596 (dynamic-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ)
7598 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ. The
7599 function is passed no arguments and its return value is ignored.
7600 When FUNCTION is something returned by `dynamic-func', call that
7601 function and ignore DYNOBJ. When FUNCTION is a string (or symbol,
7602 etc.), look it up in DYNOBJ; this is equivalent to
7604 (dynamic-call (dynamic-func FUNCTION DYNOBJ) #f)
7606 Interrupts are deferred while the C function is executing (with
7607 SCM_DEFER_INTS/SCM_ALLOW_INTS).
7609 (dynamic-args-call FUNCTION DYNOBJ ARGS)
7611 Call the C function indicated by FUNCTION and DYNOBJ, but pass it
7612 some arguments and return its return value. The C function is
7613 expected to take two arguments and return an `int', just like
7616 int c_func (int argc, char **argv);
7618 ARGS must be a list of strings and is converted into an array of
7619 `char *'. The array is passed in ARGV and its size in ARGC. The
7620 return value is converted to a Scheme number and returned from the
7621 call to `dynamic-args-call'.
7623 When dynamic linking is disabled or not supported on your system,
7624 the above functions throw errors, but they are still available.
7626 Here is a small example that works on GNU/Linux:
7628 (define libc-obj (dynamic-link "libc.so"))
7629 (dynamic-args-call 'rand libc-obj '())
7631 See the file `libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING' for additional comments.
7633 ** The #/ syntax for module names is depreciated, and will be removed
7634 in a future version of Guile. Instead of
7642 The latter syntax is more consistent with existing Lisp practice.
7644 ** Guile now does fancier printing of structures. Structures are the
7645 underlying implementation for records, which in turn are used to
7646 implement modules, so all of these object now print differently and in
7647 a more informative way.
7649 The Scheme printer will examine the builtin variable *struct-printer*
7650 whenever it needs to print a structure object. When this variable is
7651 not `#f' it is deemed to be a procedure and will be applied to the
7652 structure object and the output port. When *struct-printer* is `#f'
7653 or the procedure return `#f' the structure object will be printed in
7654 the boring #<struct 80458270> form.
7656 This hook is used by some routines in ice-9/boot-9.scm to implement
7657 type specific printing routines. Please read the comments there about
7660 One of the more specific uses of structs are records. The printing
7661 procedure that could be passed to MAKE-RECORD-TYPE is now actually
7662 called. It should behave like a *struct-printer* procedure (described
7665 ** Guile now supports a new R4RS-compliant syntax for keywords. A
7666 token of the form #:NAME, where NAME has the same syntax as a Scheme
7667 symbol, is the external representation of the keyword named NAME.
7668 Keyword objects print using this syntax as well, so values containing
7669 keyword objects can be read back into Guile. When used in an
7670 expression, keywords are self-quoting objects.
7672 Guile suports this read syntax, and uses this print syntax, regardless
7673 of the current setting of the `keyword' read option. The `keyword'
7674 read option only controls whether Guile recognizes the `:NAME' syntax,
7675 which is incompatible with R4RS. (R4RS says such token represent
7678 ** Guile has regular expression support again. Guile 1.0 included
7679 functions for matching regular expressions, based on the Rx library.
7680 In Guile 1.1, the Guile/Rx interface was removed to simplify the
7681 distribution, and thus Guile had no regular expression support. Guile
7682 1.2 again supports the most commonly used functions, and supports all
7683 of SCSH's regular expression functions.
7685 If your system does not include a POSIX regular expression library,
7686 and you have not linked Guile with a third-party regexp library such as
7687 Rx, these functions will not be available. You can tell whether your
7688 Guile installation includes regular expression support by checking
7689 whether the `*features*' list includes the `regex' symbol.
7691 *** regexp functions
7693 By default, Guile supports POSIX extended regular expressions. That
7694 means that the characters `(', `)', `+' and `?' are special, and must
7695 be escaped if you wish to match the literal characters.
7697 This regular expression interface was modeled after that implemented
7698 by SCSH, the Scheme Shell. It is intended to be upwardly compatible
7699 with SCSH regular expressions.
7701 **** Function: string-match PATTERN STR [START]
7702 Compile the string PATTERN into a regular expression and compare
7703 it with STR. The optional numeric argument START specifies the
7704 position of STR at which to begin matching.
7706 `string-match' returns a "match structure" which describes what,
7707 if anything, was matched by the regular expression. *Note Match
7708 Structures::. If STR does not match PATTERN at all,
7709 `string-match' returns `#f'.
7711 Each time `string-match' is called, it must compile its PATTERN
7712 argument into a regular expression structure. This operation is
7713 expensive, which makes `string-match' inefficient if the same regular
7714 expression is used several times (for example, in a loop). For better
7715 performance, you can compile a regular expression in advance and then
7716 match strings against the compiled regexp.
7718 **** Function: make-regexp STR [FLAGS]
7719 Compile the regular expression described by STR, and return the
7720 compiled regexp structure. If STR does not describe a legal
7721 regular expression, `make-regexp' throws a
7722 `regular-expression-syntax' error.
7724 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7726 **** Constant: regexp/extended
7727 Use POSIX Extended Regular Expression syntax when interpreting
7728 STR. If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression syntax is used.
7729 If the FLAGS argument is omitted, we assume regexp/extended.
7731 **** Constant: regexp/icase
7732 Do not differentiate case. Subsequent searches using the
7733 returned regular expression will be case insensitive.
7735 **** Constant: regexp/newline
7736 Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.
7738 A non-matching list ([^...]) not containing a newline matches a
7741 Match-beginning-of-line operator (^) matches the empty string
7742 immediately after a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7743 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/notbol.
7745 Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string
7746 immediately before a newline, regardless of whether the FLAGS
7747 passed to regexp-exec contain regexp/noteol.
7749 **** Function: regexp-exec REGEXP STR [START [FLAGS]]
7750 Match the compiled regular expression REGEXP against `str'. If
7751 the optional integer START argument is provided, begin matching
7752 from that position in the string. Return a match structure
7753 describing the results of the match, or `#f' if no match could be
7756 FLAGS may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:
7758 **** Constant: regexp/notbol
7759 The match-beginning-of-line operator always fails to match (but
7760 see the compilation flag regexp/newline above) This flag may be
7761 used when different portions of a string are passed to
7762 regexp-exec and the beginning of the string should not be
7763 interpreted as the beginning of the line.
7765 **** Constant: regexp/noteol
7766 The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the
7767 compilation flag regexp/newline above)
7769 **** Function: regexp? OBJ
7770 Return `#t' if OBJ is a compiled regular expression, or `#f'
7773 Regular expressions are commonly used to find patterns in one string
7774 and replace them with the contents of another string.
7776 **** Function: regexp-substitute PORT MATCH [ITEM...]
7777 Write to the output port PORT selected contents of the match
7778 structure MATCH. Each ITEM specifies what should be written, and
7779 may be one of the following arguments:
7781 * A string. String arguments are written out verbatim.
7783 * An integer. The submatch with that number is written.
7785 * The symbol `pre'. The portion of the matched string preceding
7786 the regexp match is written.
7788 * The symbol `post'. The portion of the matched string
7789 following the regexp match is written.
7791 PORT may be `#f', in which case nothing is written; instead,
7792 `regexp-substitute' constructs a string from the specified ITEMs
7795 **** Function: regexp-substitute/global PORT REGEXP TARGET [ITEM...]
7796 Similar to `regexp-substitute', but can be used to perform global
7797 substitutions on STR. Instead of taking a match structure as an
7798 argument, `regexp-substitute/global' takes two string arguments: a
7799 REGEXP string describing a regular expression, and a TARGET string
7800 which should be matched against this regular expression.
7802 Each ITEM behaves as in REGEXP-SUBSTITUTE, with the following
7805 * A function may be supplied. When this function is called, it
7806 will be passed one argument: a match structure for a given
7807 regular expression match. It should return a string to be
7808 written out to PORT.
7810 * The `post' symbol causes `regexp-substitute/global' to recurse
7811 on the unmatched portion of STR. This *must* be supplied in
7812 order to perform global search-and-replace on STR; if it is
7813 not present among the ITEMs, then `regexp-substitute/global'
7814 will return after processing a single match.
7816 *** Match Structures
7818 A "match structure" is the object returned by `string-match' and
7819 `regexp-exec'. It describes which portion of a string, if any, matched
7820 the given regular expression. Match structures include: a reference to
7821 the string that was checked for matches; the starting and ending
7822 positions of the regexp match; and, if the regexp included any
7823 parenthesized subexpressions, the starting and ending positions of each
7826 In each of the regexp match functions described below, the `match'
7827 argument must be a match structure returned by a previous call to
7828 `string-match' or `regexp-exec'. Most of these functions return some
7829 information about the original target string that was matched against a
7830 regular expression; we will call that string TARGET for easy reference.
7832 **** Function: regexp-match? OBJ
7833 Return `#t' if OBJ is a match structure returned by a previous
7834 call to `regexp-exec', or `#f' otherwise.
7836 **** Function: match:substring MATCH [N]
7837 Return the portion of TARGET matched by subexpression number N.
7838 Submatch 0 (the default) represents the entire regexp match. If
7839 the regular expression as a whole matched, but the subexpression
7840 number N did not match, return `#f'.
7842 **** Function: match:start MATCH [N]
7843 Return the starting position of submatch number N.
7845 **** Function: match:end MATCH [N]
7846 Return the ending position of submatch number N.
7848 **** Function: match:prefix MATCH
7849 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET preceding the regexp match.
7851 **** Function: match:suffix MATCH
7852 Return the unmatched portion of TARGET following the regexp match.
7854 **** Function: match:count MATCH
7855 Return the number of parenthesized subexpressions from MATCH.
7856 Note that the entire regular expression match itself counts as a
7857 subexpression, and failed submatches are included in the count.
7859 **** Function: match:string MATCH
7860 Return the original TARGET string.
7862 *** Backslash Escapes
7864 Sometimes you will want a regexp to match characters like `*' or `$'
7865 exactly. For example, to check whether a particular string represents
7866 a menu entry from an Info node, it would be useful to match it against
7867 a regexp like `^* [^:]*::'. However, this won't work; because the
7868 asterisk is a metacharacter, it won't match the `*' at the beginning of
7869 the string. In this case, we want to make the first asterisk un-magic.
7871 You can do this by preceding the metacharacter with a backslash
7872 character `\'. (This is also called "quoting" the metacharacter, and
7873 is known as a "backslash escape".) When Guile sees a backslash in a
7874 regular expression, it considers the following glyph to be an ordinary
7875 character, no matter what special meaning it would ordinarily have.
7876 Therefore, we can make the above example work by changing the regexp to
7877 `^\* [^:]*::'. The `\*' sequence tells the regular expression engine
7878 to match only a single asterisk in the target string.
7880 Since the backslash is itself a metacharacter, you may force a
7881 regexp to match a backslash in the target string by preceding the
7882 backslash with itself. For example, to find variable references in a
7883 TeX program, you might want to find occurrences of the string `\let\'
7884 followed by any number of alphabetic characters. The regular expression
7885 `\\let\\[A-Za-z]*' would do this: the double backslashes in the regexp
7886 each match a single backslash in the target string.
7888 **** Function: regexp-quote STR
7889 Quote each special character found in STR with a backslash, and
7890 return the resulting string.
7892 *Very important:* Using backslash escapes in Guile source code (as
7893 in Emacs Lisp or C) can be tricky, because the backslash character has
7894 special meaning for the Guile reader. For example, if Guile encounters
7895 the character sequence `\n' in the middle of a string while processing
7896 Scheme code, it replaces those characters with a newline character.
7897 Similarly, the character sequence `\t' is replaced by a horizontal tab.
7898 Several of these "escape sequences" are processed by the Guile reader
7899 before your code is executed. Unrecognized escape sequences are
7900 ignored: if the characters `\*' appear in a string, they will be
7901 translated to the single character `*'.
7903 This translation is obviously undesirable for regular expressions,
7904 since we want to be able to include backslashes in a string in order to
7905 escape regexp metacharacters. Therefore, to make sure that a backslash
7906 is preserved in a string in your Guile program, you must use *two*
7907 consecutive backslashes:
7909 (define Info-menu-entry-pattern (make-regexp "^\\* [^:]*"))
7911 The string in this example is preprocessed by the Guile reader before
7912 any code is executed. The resulting argument to `make-regexp' is the
7913 string `^\* [^:]*', which is what we really want.
7915 This also means that in order to write a regular expression that
7916 matches a single backslash character, the regular expression string in
7917 the source code must include *four* backslashes. Each consecutive pair
7918 of backslashes gets translated by the Guile reader to a single
7919 backslash, and the resulting double-backslash is interpreted by the
7920 regexp engine as matching a single backslash character. Hence:
7922 (define tex-variable-pattern (make-regexp "\\\\let\\\\=[A-Za-z]*"))
7924 The reason for the unwieldiness of this syntax is historical. Both
7925 regular expression pattern matchers and Unix string processing systems
7926 have traditionally used backslashes with the special meanings described
7927 above. The POSIX regular expression specification and ANSI C standard
7928 both require these semantics. Attempting to abandon either convention
7929 would cause other kinds of compatibility problems, possibly more severe
7930 ones. Therefore, without extending the Scheme reader to support
7931 strings with different quoting conventions (an ungainly and confusing
7932 extension when implemented in other languages), we must adhere to this
7933 cumbersome escape syntax.
7935 * Changes to the gh_ interface
7937 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7939 * Changes to system call interfaces:
7941 ** The value returned by `raise' is now unspecified. It throws an exception
7944 *** A new procedure `sigaction' can be used to install signal handlers
7946 (sigaction signum [action] [flags])
7948 signum is the signal number, which can be specified using the value
7951 If action is omitted, sigaction returns a pair: the CAR is the current
7952 signal hander, which will be either an integer with the value SIG_DFL
7953 (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or the Scheme procedure which
7954 handles the signal, or #f if a non-Scheme procedure handles the
7955 signal. The CDR contains the current sigaction flags for the handler.
7957 If action is provided, it is installed as the new handler for signum.
7958 action can be a Scheme procedure taking one argument, or the value of
7959 SIG_DFL (default action) or SIG_IGN (ignore), or #f to restore
7960 whatever signal handler was installed before sigaction was first used.
7961 Flags can optionally be specified for the new handler (SA_RESTART is
7962 always used if the system provides it, so need not be specified.) The
7963 return value is a pair with information about the old handler as
7966 This interface does not provide access to the "signal blocking"
7967 facility. Maybe this is not needed, since the thread support may
7968 provide solutions to the problem of consistent access to data
7971 *** A new procedure `flush-all-ports' is equivalent to running
7972 `force-output' on every port open for output.
7974 ** Guile now provides information on how it was built, via the new
7975 global variable, %guile-build-info. This variable records the values
7976 of the standard GNU makefile directory variables as an assocation
7977 list, mapping variable names (symbols) onto directory paths (strings).
7978 For example, to find out where the Guile link libraries were
7979 installed, you can say:
7981 guile -c "(display (assq-ref %guile-build-info 'libdir)) (newline)"
7984 * Changes to the scm_ interface
7986 ** The new function scm_handle_by_message_noexit is just like the
7987 existing scm_handle_by_message function, except that it doesn't call
7988 exit to terminate the process. Instead, it prints a message and just
7989 returns #f. This might be a more appropriate catch-all handler for
7990 new dynamic roots and threads.
7993 Changes in Guile 1.1 (released Friday, May 16 1997):
7995 * Changes to the distribution.
7997 The Guile 1.0 distribution has been split up into several smaller
7999 guile-core --- the Guile interpreter itself.
8000 guile-tcltk --- the interface between the Guile interpreter and
8001 Tcl/Tk; Tcl is an interpreter for a stringy language, and Tk
8002 is a toolkit for building graphical user interfaces.
8003 guile-rgx-ctax --- the interface between Guile and the Rx regular
8004 expression matcher, and the translator for the Ctax
8005 programming language. These are packaged together because the
8006 Ctax translator uses Rx to parse Ctax source code.
8008 This NEWS file describes the changes made to guile-core since the 1.0
8011 We no longer distribute the documentation, since it was either out of
8012 date, or incomplete. As soon as we have current documentation, we
8017 * Changes to the stand-alone interpreter
8019 ** guile now accepts command-line arguments compatible with SCSH, Olin
8020 Shivers' Scheme Shell.
8022 In general, arguments are evaluated from left to right, but there are
8023 exceptions. The following switches stop argument processing, and
8024 stash all remaining command-line arguments as the value returned by
8025 the (command-line) function.
8026 -s SCRIPT load Scheme source code from FILE, and exit
8027 -c EXPR evalute Scheme expression EXPR, and exit
8028 -- stop scanning arguments; run interactively
8030 The switches below are processed as they are encountered.
8031 -l FILE load Scheme source code from FILE
8032 -e FUNCTION after reading script, apply FUNCTION to
8033 command line arguments
8034 -ds do -s script at this point
8035 --emacs enable Emacs protocol (experimental)
8036 -h, --help display this help and exit
8037 -v, --version display version information and exit
8038 \ read arguments from following script lines
8040 So, for example, here is a Guile script named `ekko' (thanks, Olin)
8041 which re-implements the traditional "echo" command:
8043 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8046 (map (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8050 (main (command-line))
8052 Suppose we invoke this script as follows:
8054 ekko a speckled gecko
8056 Through the magic of Unix script processing (triggered by the `#!'
8057 token at the top of the file), /usr/local/bin/guile receives the
8058 following list of command-line arguments:
8060 ("-s" "./ekko" "a" "speckled" "gecko")
8062 Unix inserts the name of the script after the argument specified on
8063 the first line of the file (in this case, "-s"), and then follows that
8064 with the arguments given to the script. Guile loads the script, which
8065 defines the `main' function, and then applies it to the list of
8066 remaining command-line arguments, ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8068 In Unix, the first line of a script file must take the following form:
8070 #!INTERPRETER ARGUMENT
8072 where INTERPRETER is the absolute filename of the interpreter
8073 executable, and ARGUMENT is a single command-line argument to pass to
8076 You may only pass one argument to the interpreter, and its length is
8077 limited. These restrictions can be annoying to work around, so Guile
8078 provides a general mechanism (borrowed from, and compatible with,
8079 SCSH) for circumventing them.
8081 If the ARGUMENT in a Guile script is a single backslash character,
8082 `\', Guile will open the script file, parse arguments from its second
8083 and subsequent lines, and replace the `\' with them. So, for example,
8084 here is another implementation of the `ekko' script:
8086 #!/usr/local/bin/guile \
8090 (for-each (lambda (arg) (display arg) (display " "))
8094 If the user invokes this script as follows:
8096 ekko a speckled gecko
8098 Unix expands this into
8100 /usr/local/bin/guile \ ekko a speckled gecko
8102 When Guile sees the `\' argument, it replaces it with the arguments
8103 read from the second line of the script, producing:
8105 /usr/local/bin/guile -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8107 This tells Guile to load the `ekko' script, and apply the function
8108 `main' to the argument list ("a" "speckled" "gecko").
8110 Here is how Guile parses the command-line arguments:
8111 - Each space character terminates an argument. This means that two
8112 spaces in a row introduce an empty-string argument.
8113 - The tab character is not permitted (unless you quote it with the
8114 backslash character, as described below), to avoid confusion.
8115 - The newline character terminates the sequence of arguments, and will
8116 also terminate a final non-empty argument. (However, a newline
8117 following a space will not introduce a final empty-string argument;
8118 it only terminates the argument list.)
8119 - The backslash character is the escape character. It escapes
8120 backslash, space, tab, and newline. The ANSI C escape sequences
8121 like \n and \t are also supported. These produce argument
8122 constituents; the two-character combination \n doesn't act like a
8123 terminating newline. The escape sequence \NNN for exactly three
8124 octal digits reads as the character whose ASCII code is NNN. As
8125 above, characters produced this way are argument constituents.
8126 Backslash followed by other characters is not allowed.
8128 * Changes to the procedure for linking libguile with your programs
8130 ** Guile now builds and installs a shared guile library, if your
8131 system support shared libraries. (It still builds a static library on
8132 all systems.) Guile automatically detects whether your system
8133 supports shared libraries. To prevent Guile from buildisg shared
8134 libraries, pass the `--disable-shared' flag to the configure script.
8136 Guile takes longer to compile when it builds shared libraries, because
8137 it must compile every file twice --- once to produce position-
8138 independent object code, and once to produce normal object code.
8140 ** The libthreads library has been merged into libguile.
8142 To link a program against Guile, you now need only link against
8143 -lguile and -lqt; -lthreads is no longer needed. If you are using
8144 autoconf to generate configuration scripts for your application, the
8145 following lines should suffice to add the appropriate libraries to
8148 ### Find quickthreads and libguile.
8149 AC_CHECK_LIB(qt, main)
8150 AC_CHECK_LIB(guile, scm_shell)
8152 * Changes to Scheme functions
8154 ** Guile Scheme's special syntax for keyword objects is now optional,
8155 and disabled by default.
8157 The syntax variation from R4RS made it difficult to port some
8158 interesting packages to Guile. The routines which accepted keyword
8159 arguments (mostly in the module system) have been modified to also
8160 accept symbols whose names begin with `:'.
8162 To change the keyword syntax, you must first import the (ice-9 debug)
8164 (use-modules (ice-9 debug))
8166 Then you can enable the keyword syntax as follows:
8167 (read-set! keywords 'prefix)
8169 To disable keyword syntax, do this:
8170 (read-set! keywords #f)
8172 ** Many more primitive functions accept shared substrings as
8173 arguments. In the past, these functions required normal, mutable
8174 strings as arguments, although they never made use of this
8177 ** The uniform array functions now operate on byte vectors. These
8178 functions are `array-fill!', `serial-array-copy!', `array-copy!',
8179 `serial-array-map', `array-map', `array-for-each', and
8182 ** The new functions `trace' and `untrace' implement simple debugging
8183 support for Scheme functions.
8185 The `trace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8186 and tells the Guile interpreter to display each procedure's name and
8187 arguments each time the procedure is invoked. When invoked with no
8188 arguments, `trace' returns the list of procedures currently being
8191 The `untrace' function accepts any number of procedures as arguments,
8192 and tells the Guile interpreter not to trace them any more. When
8193 invoked with no arguments, `untrace' untraces all curretly traced
8196 The tracing in Guile has an advantage over most other systems: we
8197 don't create new procedure objects, but mark the procedure objects
8198 themselves. This means that anonymous and internal procedures can be
8201 ** The function `assert-repl-prompt' has been renamed to
8202 `set-repl-prompt!'. It takes one argument, PROMPT.
8203 - If PROMPT is #f, the Guile read-eval-print loop will not prompt.
8204 - If PROMPT is a string, we use it as a prompt.
8205 - If PROMPT is a procedure accepting no arguments, we call it, and
8206 display the result as a prompt.
8207 - Otherwise, we display "> ".
8209 ** The new function `eval-string' reads Scheme expressions from a
8210 string and evaluates them, returning the value of the last expression
8211 in the string. If the string contains no expressions, it returns an
8214 ** The new function `thunk?' returns true iff its argument is a
8215 procedure of zero arguments.
8217 ** `defined?' is now a builtin function, instead of syntax. This
8218 means that its argument should be quoted. It returns #t iff its
8219 argument is bound in the current module.
8221 ** The new syntax `use-modules' allows you to add new modules to your
8222 environment without re-typing a complete `define-module' form. It
8223 accepts any number of module names as arguments, and imports their
8224 public bindings into the current module.
8226 ** The new function (module-defined? NAME MODULE) returns true iff
8227 NAME, a symbol, is defined in MODULE, a module object.
8229 ** The new function `builtin-bindings' creates and returns a hash
8230 table containing copies of all the root module's bindings.
8232 ** The new function `builtin-weak-bindings' does the same as
8233 `builtin-bindings', but creates a doubly-weak hash table.
8235 ** The `equal?' function now considers variable objects to be
8236 equivalent if they have the same name and the same value.
8238 ** The new function `command-line' returns the command-line arguments
8239 given to Guile, as a list of strings.
8241 When using guile as a script interpreter, `command-line' returns the
8242 script's arguments; those processed by the interpreter (like `-s' or
8243 `-c') are omitted. (In other words, you get the normal, expected
8244 behavior.) Any application that uses scm_shell to process its
8245 command-line arguments gets this behavior as well.
8247 ** The new function `load-user-init' looks for a file called `.guile'
8248 in the user's home directory, and loads it if it exists. This is
8249 mostly for use by the code generated by scm_compile_shell_switches,
8250 but we thought it might also be useful in other circumstances.
8252 ** The new function `log10' returns the base-10 logarithm of its
8255 ** Changes to I/O functions
8257 *** The functions `read', `primitive-load', `read-and-eval!', and
8258 `primitive-load-path' no longer take optional arguments controlling
8259 case insensitivity and a `#' parser.
8261 Case sensitivity is now controlled by a read option called
8262 `case-insensitive'. The user can add new `#' syntaxes with the
8263 `read-hash-extend' function (see below).
8265 *** The new function `read-hash-extend' allows the user to change the
8266 syntax of Guile Scheme in a somewhat controlled way.
8268 (read-hash-extend CHAR PROC)
8269 When parsing S-expressions, if we read a `#' character followed by
8270 the character CHAR, use PROC to parse an object from the stream.
8271 If PROC is #f, remove any parsing procedure registered for CHAR.
8273 The reader applies PROC to two arguments: CHAR and an input port.
8275 *** The new functions read-delimited and read-delimited! provide a
8276 general mechanism for doing delimited input on streams.
8278 (read-delimited DELIMS [PORT HANDLE-DELIM])
8279 Read until we encounter one of the characters in DELIMS (a string),
8280 or end-of-file. PORT is the input port to read from; it defaults to
8281 the current input port. The HANDLE-DELIM parameter determines how
8282 the terminating character is handled; it should be one of the
8285 'trim omit delimiter from result
8286 'peek leave delimiter character in input stream
8287 'concat append delimiter character to returned value
8288 'split return a pair: (RESULT . TERMINATOR)
8290 HANDLE-DELIM defaults to 'peek.
8292 (read-delimited! DELIMS BUF [PORT HANDLE-DELIM START END])
8293 A side-effecting variant of `read-delimited'.
8295 The data is written into the string BUF at the indices in the
8296 half-open interval [START, END); the default interval is the whole
8297 string: START = 0 and END = (string-length BUF). The values of
8298 START and END must specify a well-defined interval in BUF, i.e.
8299 0 <= START <= END <= (string-length BUF).
8301 It returns NBYTES, the number of bytes read. If the buffer filled
8302 up without a delimiter character being found, it returns #f. If the
8303 port is at EOF when the read starts, it returns the EOF object.
8305 If an integer is returned (i.e., the read is successfully terminated
8306 by reading a delimiter character), then the HANDLE-DELIM parameter
8307 determines how to handle the terminating character. It is described
8308 above, and defaults to 'peek.
8310 (The descriptions of these functions were borrowed from the SCSH
8311 manual, by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8313 *** The `%read-delimited!' function is the primitive used to implement
8314 `read-delimited' and `read-delimited!'.
8316 (%read-delimited! DELIMS BUF GOBBLE? [PORT START END])
8318 This returns a pair of values: (TERMINATOR . NUM-READ).
8319 - TERMINATOR describes why the read was terminated. If it is a
8320 character or the eof object, then that is the value that terminated
8321 the read. If it is #f, the function filled the buffer without finding
8322 a delimiting character.
8323 - NUM-READ is the number of characters read into BUF.
8325 If the read is successfully terminated by reading a delimiter
8326 character, then the gobble? parameter determines what to do with the
8327 terminating character. If true, the character is removed from the
8328 input stream; if false, the character is left in the input stream
8329 where a subsequent read operation will retrieve it. In either case,
8330 the character is also the first value returned by the procedure call.
8332 (The descriptions of this function was borrowed from the SCSH manual,
8333 by Olin Shivers and Brian Carlstrom.)
8335 *** The `read-line' and `read-line!' functions have changed; they now
8336 trim the terminator by default; previously they appended it to the
8337 returned string. For the old behavior, use (read-line PORT 'concat).
8339 *** The functions `uniform-array-read!' and `uniform-array-write!' now
8340 take new optional START and END arguments, specifying the region of
8341 the array to read and write.
8343 *** The `ungetc-char-ready?' function has been removed. We feel it's
8344 inappropriate for an interface to expose implementation details this
8347 ** Changes to the Unix library and system call interface
8349 *** The new fcntl function provides access to the Unix `fcntl' system
8352 (fcntl PORT COMMAND VALUE)
8353 Apply COMMAND to PORT's file descriptor, with VALUE as an argument.
8354 Values for COMMAND are:
8356 F_DUPFD duplicate a file descriptor
8357 F_GETFD read the descriptor's close-on-exec flag
8358 F_SETFD set the descriptor's close-on-exec flag to VALUE
8359 F_GETFL read the descriptor's flags, as set on open
8360 F_SETFL set the descriptor's flags, as set on open to VALUE
8361 F_GETOWN return the process ID of a socket's owner, for SIGIO
8362 F_SETOWN set the process that owns a socket to VALUE, for SIGIO
8363 FD_CLOEXEC not sure what this is
8365 For details, see the documentation for the fcntl system call.
8367 *** The arguments to `select' have changed, for compatibility with
8368 SCSH. The TIMEOUT parameter may now be non-integral, yielding the
8369 expected behavior. The MILLISECONDS parameter has been changed to
8370 MICROSECONDS, to more closely resemble the underlying system call.
8371 The RVEC, WVEC, and EVEC arguments can now be vectors; the type of the
8372 corresponding return set will be the same.
8374 *** The arguments to the `mknod' system call have changed. They are
8377 (mknod PATH TYPE PERMS DEV)
8378 Create a new file (`node') in the file system. PATH is the name of
8379 the file to create. TYPE is the kind of file to create; it should
8380 be 'fifo, 'block-special, or 'char-special. PERMS specifies the
8381 permission bits to give the newly created file. If TYPE is
8382 'block-special or 'char-special, DEV specifies which device the
8383 special file refers to; its interpretation depends on the kind of
8384 special file being created.
8386 *** The `fork' function has been renamed to `primitive-fork', to avoid
8387 clashing with various SCSH forks.
8389 *** The `recv' and `recvfrom' functions have been renamed to `recv!'
8390 and `recvfrom!'. They no longer accept a size for a second argument;
8391 you must pass a string to hold the received value. They no longer
8392 return the buffer. Instead, `recv' returns the length of the message
8393 received, and `recvfrom' returns a pair containing the packet's length
8394 and originating address.
8396 *** The file descriptor datatype has been removed, as have the
8397 `read-fd', `write-fd', `close', `lseek', and `dup' functions.
8398 We plan to replace these functions with a SCSH-compatible interface.
8400 *** The `create' function has been removed; it's just a special case
8403 *** There are new functions to break down process termination status
8404 values. In the descriptions below, STATUS is a value returned by
8407 (status:exit-val STATUS)
8408 If the child process exited normally, this function returns the exit
8409 code for the child process (i.e., the value passed to exit, or
8410 returned from main). If the child process did not exit normally,
8411 this function returns #f.
8413 (status:stop-sig STATUS)
8414 If the child process was suspended by a signal, this function
8415 returns the signal that suspended the child. Otherwise, it returns
8418 (status:term-sig STATUS)
8419 If the child process terminated abnormally, this function returns
8420 the signal that terminated the child. Otherwise, this function
8423 POSIX promises that exactly one of these functions will return true on
8424 a valid STATUS value.
8426 These functions are compatible with SCSH.
8428 *** There are new accessors and setters for the broken-out time vectors
8429 returned by `localtime', `gmtime', and that ilk. They are:
8431 Component Accessor Setter
8432 ========================= ============ ============
8433 seconds tm:sec set-tm:sec
8434 minutes tm:min set-tm:min
8435 hours tm:hour set-tm:hour
8436 day of the month tm:mday set-tm:mday
8437 month tm:mon set-tm:mon
8438 year tm:year set-tm:year
8439 day of the week tm:wday set-tm:wday
8440 day in the year tm:yday set-tm:yday
8441 daylight saving time tm:isdst set-tm:isdst
8442 GMT offset, seconds tm:gmtoff set-tm:gmtoff
8443 name of time zone tm:zone set-tm:zone
8445 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `uname',
8446 describing the host system:
8449 ============================================== ================
8450 name of the operating system implementation utsname:sysname
8451 network name of this machine utsname:nodename
8452 release level of the operating system utsname:release
8453 version level of the operating system utsname:version
8454 machine hardware platform utsname:machine
8456 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getpw',
8457 `getpwnam', `getpwuid', and `getpwent', describing entries from the
8458 system's user database:
8461 ====================== =================
8462 user name passwd:name
8463 user password passwd:passwd
8466 real name passwd:gecos
8467 home directory passwd:dir
8468 shell program passwd:shell
8470 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getgr',
8471 `getgrnam', `getgrgid', and `getgrent', describing entries from the
8472 system's group database:
8475 ======================= ============
8476 group name group:name
8477 group password group:passwd
8479 group members group:mem
8481 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `gethost',
8482 `gethostbyaddr', `gethostbyname', and `gethostent', describing
8486 ========================= ===============
8487 official name of host hostent:name
8488 alias list hostent:aliases
8489 host address type hostent:addrtype
8490 length of address hostent:length
8491 list of addresses hostent:addr-list
8493 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getnet',
8494 `getnetbyaddr', `getnetbyname', and `getnetent', describing internet
8498 ========================= ===============
8499 official name of net netent:name
8500 alias list netent:aliases
8501 net number type netent:addrtype
8502 net number netent:net
8504 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getproto',
8505 `getprotobyname', `getprotobynumber', and `getprotoent', describing
8509 ========================= ===============
8510 official protocol name protoent:name
8511 alias list protoent:aliases
8512 protocol number protoent:proto
8514 *** There are new accessors for the vectors returned by `getserv',
8515 `getservbyname', `getservbyport', and `getservent', describing
8519 ========================= ===============
8520 official service name servent:name
8521 alias list servent:aliases
8522 port number servent:port
8523 protocol to use servent:proto
8525 *** There are new accessors for the sockaddr structures returned by
8526 `accept', `getsockname', `getpeername', `recvfrom!':
8529 ======================================== ===============
8530 address format (`family') sockaddr:fam
8531 path, for file domain addresses sockaddr:path
8532 address, for internet domain addresses sockaddr:addr
8533 TCP or UDP port, for internet sockaddr:port
8535 *** The `getpwent', `getgrent', `gethostent', `getnetent',
8536 `getprotoent', and `getservent' functions now return #f at the end of
8537 the user database. (They used to throw an exception.)
8539 Note that calling MUMBLEent function is equivalent to calling the
8540 corresponding MUMBLE function with no arguments.
8542 *** The `setpwent', `setgrent', `sethostent', `setnetent',
8543 `setprotoent', and `setservent' routines now take no arguments.
8545 *** The `gethost', `getproto', `getnet', and `getserv' functions now
8546 provide more useful information when they throw an exception.
8548 *** The `lnaof' function has been renamed to `inet-lnaof'.
8550 *** Guile now claims to have the `current-time' feature.
8552 *** The `mktime' function now takes an optional second argument ZONE,
8553 giving the time zone to use for the conversion. ZONE should be a
8554 string, in the same format as expected for the "TZ" environment variable.
8556 *** The `strptime' function now returns a pair (TIME . COUNT), where
8557 TIME is the parsed time as a vector, and COUNT is the number of
8558 characters from the string left unparsed. This function used to
8559 return the remaining characters as a string.
8561 *** The `gettimeofday' function has replaced the old `time+ticks' function.
8562 The return value is now (SECONDS . MICROSECONDS); the fractional
8563 component is no longer expressed in "ticks".
8565 *** The `ticks/sec' constant has been removed, in light of the above change.
8567 * Changes to the gh_ interface
8569 ** gh_eval_str() now returns an SCM object which is the result of the
8572 ** gh_scm2str() now copies the Scheme data to a caller-provided C
8575 ** gh_scm2newstr() now makes a C array, copies the Scheme data to it,
8576 and returns the array
8578 ** gh_scm2str0() is gone: there is no need to distinguish
8579 null-terminated from non-null-terminated, since gh_scm2newstr() allows
8580 the user to interpret the data both ways.
8582 * Changes to the scm_ interface
8584 ** The new function scm_symbol_value0 provides an easy way to get a
8585 symbol's value from C code:
8587 SCM scm_symbol_value0 (char *NAME)
8588 Return the value of the symbol named by the null-terminated string
8589 NAME in the current module. If the symbol named NAME is unbound in
8590 the current module, return SCM_UNDEFINED.
8592 ** The new function scm_sysintern0 creates new top-level variables,
8593 without assigning them a value.
8595 SCM scm_sysintern0 (char *NAME)
8596 Create a new Scheme top-level variable named NAME. NAME is a
8597 null-terminated string. Return the variable's value cell.
8599 ** The function scm_internal_catch is the guts of catch. It handles
8600 all the mechanics of setting up a catch target, invoking the catch
8601 body, and perhaps invoking the handler if the body does a throw.
8603 The function is designed to be usable from C code, but is general
8604 enough to implement all the semantics Guile Scheme expects from throw.
8606 TAG is the catch tag. Typically, this is a symbol, but this function
8607 doesn't actually care about that.
8609 BODY is a pointer to a C function which runs the body of the catch;
8610 this is the code you can throw from. We call it like this:
8611 BODY (BODY_DATA, JMPBUF)
8613 BODY_DATA is just the BODY_DATA argument we received; we pass it
8614 through to BODY as its first argument. The caller can make
8615 BODY_DATA point to anything useful that BODY might need.
8616 JMPBUF is the Scheme jmpbuf object corresponding to this catch,
8617 which we have just created and initialized.
8619 HANDLER is a pointer to a C function to deal with a throw to TAG,
8620 should one occur. We call it like this:
8621 HANDLER (HANDLER_DATA, THROWN_TAG, THROW_ARGS)
8623 HANDLER_DATA is the HANDLER_DATA argument we recevied; it's the
8624 same idea as BODY_DATA above.
8625 THROWN_TAG is the tag that the user threw to; usually this is
8626 TAG, but it could be something else if TAG was #t (i.e., a
8627 catch-all), or the user threw to a jmpbuf.
8628 THROW_ARGS is the list of arguments the user passed to the THROW
8631 BODY_DATA is just a pointer we pass through to BODY. HANDLER_DATA
8632 is just a pointer we pass through to HANDLER. We don't actually
8633 use either of those pointers otherwise ourselves. The idea is
8634 that, if our caller wants to communicate something to BODY or
8635 HANDLER, it can pass a pointer to it as MUMBLE_DATA, which BODY and
8636 HANDLER can then use. Think of it as a way to make BODY and
8637 HANDLER closures, not just functions; MUMBLE_DATA points to the
8640 Of course, it's up to the caller to make sure that any data a
8641 MUMBLE_DATA needs is protected from GC. A common way to do this is
8642 to make MUMBLE_DATA a pointer to data stored in an automatic
8643 structure variable; since the collector must scan the stack for
8644 references anyway, this assures that any references in MUMBLE_DATA
8647 ** The new function scm_internal_lazy_catch is exactly like
8648 scm_internal_catch, except:
8650 - It does not unwind the stack (this is the major difference).
8651 - If handler returns, its value is returned from the throw.
8652 - BODY always receives #f as its JMPBUF argument (since there's no
8653 jmpbuf associated with a lazy catch, because we don't unwind the
8656 ** scm_body_thunk is a new body function you can pass to
8657 scm_internal_catch if you want the body to be like Scheme's `catch'
8658 --- a thunk, or a function of one argument if the tag is #f.
8660 BODY_DATA is a pointer to a scm_body_thunk_data structure, which
8661 contains the Scheme procedure to invoke as the body, and the tag
8662 we're catching. If the tag is #f, then we pass JMPBUF (created by
8663 scm_internal_catch) to the body procedure; otherwise, the body gets
8666 ** scm_handle_by_proc is a new handler function you can pass to
8667 scm_internal_catch if you want the handler to act like Scheme's catch
8668 --- call a procedure with the tag and the throw arguments.
8670 If the user does a throw to this catch, this function runs a handler
8671 procedure written in Scheme. HANDLER_DATA is a pointer to an SCM
8672 variable holding the Scheme procedure object to invoke. It ought to
8673 be a pointer to an automatic variable (i.e., one living on the stack),
8674 or the procedure object should be otherwise protected from GC.
8676 ** scm_handle_by_message is a new handler function to use with
8677 `scm_internal_catch' if you want Guile to print a message and die.
8678 It's useful for dealing with throws to uncaught keys at the top level.
8680 HANDLER_DATA, if non-zero, is assumed to be a char * pointing to a
8681 message header to print; if zero, we use "guile" instead. That
8682 text is followed by a colon, then the message described by ARGS.
8684 ** The return type of scm_boot_guile is now void; the function does
8685 not return a value, and indeed, never returns at all.
8687 ** The new function scm_shell makes it easy for user applications to
8688 process command-line arguments in a way that is compatible with the
8689 stand-alone guile interpreter (which is in turn compatible with SCSH,
8692 To use the scm_shell function, first initialize any guile modules
8693 linked into your application, and then call scm_shell with the values
8694 of ARGC and ARGV your `main' function received. scm_shell will add
8695 any SCSH-style meta-arguments from the top of the script file to the
8696 argument vector, and then process the command-line arguments. This
8697 generally means loading a script file or starting up an interactive
8698 command interpreter. For details, see "Changes to the stand-alone
8701 ** The new functions scm_get_meta_args and scm_count_argv help you
8702 implement the SCSH-style meta-argument, `\'.
8704 char **scm_get_meta_args (int ARGC, char **ARGV)
8705 If the second element of ARGV is a string consisting of a single
8706 backslash character (i.e. "\\" in Scheme notation), open the file
8707 named by the following argument, parse arguments from it, and return
8708 the spliced command line. The returned array is terminated by a
8711 For details of argument parsing, see above, under "guile now accepts
8712 command-line arguments compatible with SCSH..."
8714 int scm_count_argv (char **ARGV)
8715 Count the arguments in ARGV, assuming it is terminated by a null
8718 For an example of how these functions might be used, see the source
8719 code for the function scm_shell in libguile/script.c.
8721 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8724 ** The new function scm_compile_shell_switches turns an array of
8725 command-line arguments into Scheme code to carry out the actions they
8726 describe. Given ARGC and ARGV, it returns a Scheme expression to
8727 evaluate, and calls scm_set_program_arguments to make any remaining
8728 command-line arguments available to the Scheme code. For example,
8729 given the following arguments:
8731 -e main -s ekko a speckled gecko
8733 scm_set_program_arguments will return the following expression:
8735 (begin (load "ekko") (main (command-line)) (quit))
8737 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8740 ** The function scm_shell_usage prints a usage message appropriate for
8741 an interpreter that uses scm_compile_shell_switches to handle its
8742 command-line arguments.
8744 void scm_shell_usage (int FATAL, char *MESSAGE)
8745 Print a usage message to the standard error output. If MESSAGE is
8746 non-zero, write it before the usage message, followed by a newline.
8747 If FATAL is non-zero, exit the process, using FATAL as the
8748 termination status. (If you want to be compatible with Guile,
8749 always use 1 as the exit status when terminating due to command-line
8752 You will usually want to use scm_shell instead of calling this
8755 ** scm_eval_0str now returns SCM_UNSPECIFIED if the string contains no
8756 expressions. It used to return SCM_EOL. Earth-shattering.
8758 ** The macros for declaring scheme objects in C code have been
8759 rearranged slightly. They are now:
8761 SCM_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8762 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8763 point to the Scheme symbol whose name is SCHEME_NAME. C_NAME should
8764 be a C identifier, and SCHEME_NAME should be a C string.
8766 SCM_GLOBAL_SYMBOL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8767 Just like SCM_SYMBOL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8769 SCM_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8770 Create a global variable at the Scheme level named SCHEME_NAME.
8771 Declare a static SCM variable named C_NAME, and initialize it to
8772 point to the Scheme variable's value cell.
8774 SCM_GLOBAL_VCELL (C_NAME, SCHEME_NAME)
8775 Just like SCM_VCELL, but make C_NAME globally visible.
8777 The `guile-snarf' script writes initialization code for these macros
8778 to its standard output, given C source code as input.
8780 The SCM_GLOBAL macro is gone.
8782 ** The scm_read_line and scm_read_line_x functions have been replaced
8783 by Scheme code based on the %read-delimited! procedure (known to C
8784 code as scm_read_delimited_x). See its description above for more
8787 ** The function scm_sys_open has been renamed to scm_open. It now
8788 returns a port instead of an FD object.
8790 * The dynamic linking support has changed. For more information, see
8791 libguile/DYNAMIC-LINKING.
8796 User-visible changes from Thursday, September 5, 1996 until Guile 1.0
8799 * Changes to the 'guile' program:
8801 ** Guile now loads some new files when it starts up. Guile first
8802 searches the load path for init.scm, and loads it if found. Then, if
8803 Guile is not being used to execute a script, and the user's home
8804 directory contains a file named `.guile', Guile loads that.
8806 ** You can now use Guile as a shell script interpreter.
8808 To paraphrase the SCSH manual:
8810 When Unix tries to execute an executable file whose first two
8811 characters are the `#!', it treats the file not as machine code to
8812 be directly executed by the native processor, but as source code
8813 to be executed by some interpreter. The interpreter to use is
8814 specified immediately after the #! sequence on the first line of
8815 the source file. The kernel reads in the name of the interpreter,
8816 and executes that instead. It passes the interpreter the source
8817 filename as its first argument, with the original arguments
8818 following. Consult the Unix man page for the `exec' system call
8819 for more information.
8821 Now you can use Guile as an interpreter, using a mechanism which is a
8822 compatible subset of that provided by SCSH.
8824 Guile now recognizes a '-s' command line switch, whose argument is the
8825 name of a file of Scheme code to load. It also treats the two
8826 characters `#!' as the start of a comment, terminated by `!#'. Thus,
8827 to make a file of Scheme code directly executable by Unix, insert the
8828 following two lines at the top of the file:
8830 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8833 Guile treats the argument of the `-s' command-line switch as the name
8834 of a file of Scheme code to load, and treats the sequence `#!' as the
8835 start of a block comment, terminated by `!#'.
8837 For example, here's a version of 'echo' written in Scheme:
8839 #!/usr/local/bin/guile -s
8841 (let loop ((args (cdr (program-arguments))))
8844 (display (car args))
8845 (if (pair? (cdr args))
8847 (loop (cdr args)))))
8850 Why does `#!' start a block comment terminated by `!#', instead of the
8851 end of the line? That is the notation SCSH uses, and although we
8852 don't yet support the other SCSH features that motivate that choice,
8853 we would like to be backward-compatible with any existing Guile
8854 scripts once we do. Furthermore, if the path to Guile on your system
8855 is too long for your kernel, you can start the script with this
8859 exec /really/long/path/to/guile -s "$0" ${1+"$@"}
8862 Note that some very old Unix systems don't support the `#!' syntax.
8865 ** You can now run Guile without installing it.
8867 Previous versions of the interactive Guile interpreter (`guile')
8868 couldn't start up unless Guile's Scheme library had been installed;
8869 they used the value of the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH'
8870 later on in the startup process, but not to find the startup code
8871 itself. Now Guile uses `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' in all searches for Scheme
8874 To run Guile without installing it, build it in the normal way, and
8875 then set the environment variable `SCHEME_LOAD_PATH' to a
8876 colon-separated list of directories, including the top-level directory
8877 of the Guile sources. For example, if you unpacked Guile so that the
8878 full filename of this NEWS file is /home/jimb/guile-1.0b3/NEWS, then
8881 export SCHEME_LOAD_PATH=/home/jimb/my-scheme:/home/jimb/guile-1.0b3
8884 ** Guile's read-eval-print loop no longer prints #<unspecified>
8885 results. If the user wants to see this, she can evaluate the
8886 expression (assert-repl-print-unspecified #t), perhaps in her startup
8889 ** Guile no longer shows backtraces by default when an error occurs;
8890 however, it does display a message saying how to get one, and how to
8891 request that they be displayed by default. After an error, evaluate
8893 to see a backtrace, and
8894 (debug-enable 'backtrace)
8895 to see them by default.
8899 * Changes to Guile Scheme:
8901 ** Guile now distinguishes between #f and the empty list.
8903 This is for compatibility with the IEEE standard, the (possibly)
8904 upcoming Revised^5 Report on Scheme, and many extant Scheme
8907 Guile used to have #f and '() denote the same object, to make Scheme's
8908 type system more compatible with Emacs Lisp's. However, the change
8909 caused too much trouble for Scheme programmers, and we found another
8910 way to reconcile Emacs Lisp with Scheme that didn't require this.
8913 ** Guile's delq, delv, delete functions, and their destructive
8914 counterparts, delq!, delv!, and delete!, now remove all matching
8915 elements from the list, not just the first. This matches the behavior
8916 of the corresponding Emacs Lisp functions, and (I believe) the Maclisp
8917 functions which inspired them.
8919 I recognize that this change may break code in subtle ways, but it
8920 seems best to make the change before the FSF's first Guile release,
8924 ** The compiled-library-path function has been deleted from libguile.
8926 ** The facilities for loading Scheme source files have changed.
8928 *** The variable %load-path now tells Guile which directories to search
8929 for Scheme code. Its value is a list of strings, each of which names
8932 *** The variable %load-extensions now tells Guile which extensions to
8933 try appending to a filename when searching the load path. Its value
8934 is a list of strings. Its default value is ("" ".scm").
8936 *** (%search-load-path FILENAME) searches the directories listed in the
8937 value of the %load-path variable for a Scheme file named FILENAME,
8938 with all the extensions listed in %load-extensions. If it finds a
8939 match, then it returns its full filename. If FILENAME is absolute, it
8940 returns it unchanged. Otherwise, it returns #f.
8942 %search-load-path will not return matches that refer to directories.
8944 *** (primitive-load FILENAME :optional CASE-INSENSITIVE-P SHARP)
8945 uses %seach-load-path to find a file named FILENAME, and loads it if
8946 it finds it. If it can't read FILENAME for any reason, it throws an
8949 The arguments CASE-INSENSITIVE-P and SHARP are interpreted as by the
8952 *** load uses the same searching semantics as primitive-load.
8954 *** The functions %try-load, try-load-with-path, %load, load-with-path,
8955 basic-try-load-with-path, basic-load-with-path, try-load-module-with-
8956 path, and load-module-with-path have been deleted. The functions
8957 above should serve their purposes.
8959 *** If the value of the variable %load-hook is a procedure,
8960 `primitive-load' applies its value to the name of the file being
8961 loaded (without the load path directory name prepended). If its value
8962 is #f, it is ignored. Otherwise, an error occurs.
8964 This is mostly useful for printing load notification messages.
8967 ** The function `eval!' is no longer accessible from the scheme level.
8968 We can't allow operations which introduce glocs into the scheme level,
8969 because Guile's type system can't handle these as data. Use `eval' or
8970 `read-and-eval!' (see below) as replacement.
8972 ** The new function read-and-eval! reads an expression from PORT,
8973 evaluates it, and returns the result. This is more efficient than
8974 simply calling `read' and `eval', since it is not necessary to make a
8975 copy of the expression for the evaluator to munge.
8977 Its optional arguments CASE_INSENSITIVE_P and SHARP are interpreted as
8978 for the `read' function.
8981 ** The function `int?' has been removed; its definition was identical
8982 to that of `integer?'.
8984 ** The functions `<?', `<?', `<=?', `=?', `>?', and `>=?'. Code should
8985 use the R4RS names for these functions.
8987 ** The function object-properties no longer returns the hash handle;
8988 it simply returns the object's property list.
8990 ** Many functions have been changed to throw errors, instead of
8991 returning #f on failure. The point of providing exception handling in
8992 the language is to simplify the logic of user code, but this is less
8993 useful if Guile's primitives don't throw exceptions.
8995 ** The function `fileno' has been renamed from `%fileno'.
8997 ** The function primitive-mode->fdes returns #t or #f now, not 1 or 0.
9000 * Changes to Guile's C interface:
9002 ** The library's initialization procedure has been simplified.
9003 scm_boot_guile now has the prototype:
9005 void scm_boot_guile (int ARGC,
9007 void (*main_func) (),
9010 scm_boot_guile calls MAIN_FUNC, passing it CLOSURE, ARGC, and ARGV.
9011 MAIN_FUNC should do all the work of the program (initializing other
9012 packages, reading user input, etc.) before returning. When MAIN_FUNC
9013 returns, call exit (0); this function never returns. If you want some
9014 other exit value, MAIN_FUNC may call exit itself.
9016 scm_boot_guile arranges for program-arguments to return the strings
9017 given by ARGC and ARGV. If MAIN_FUNC modifies ARGC/ARGV, should call
9018 scm_set_program_arguments with the final list, so Scheme code will
9019 know which arguments have been processed.
9021 scm_boot_guile establishes a catch-all catch handler which prints an
9022 error message and exits the process. This means that Guile exits in a
9023 coherent way when system errors occur and the user isn't prepared to
9024 handle it. If the user doesn't like this behavior, they can establish
9025 their own universal catcher in MAIN_FUNC to shadow this one.
9027 Why must the caller do all the real work from MAIN_FUNC? The garbage
9028 collector assumes that all local variables of type SCM will be above
9029 scm_boot_guile's stack frame on the stack. If you try to manipulate
9030 SCM values after this function returns, it's the luck of the draw
9031 whether the GC will be able to find the objects you allocate. So,
9032 scm_boot_guile function exits, rather than returning, to discourage
9033 people from making that mistake.
9035 The IN, OUT, and ERR arguments were removed; there are other
9036 convenient ways to override these when desired.
9038 The RESULT argument was deleted; this function should never return.
9040 The BOOT_CMD argument was deleted; the MAIN_FUNC argument is more
9044 ** Guile's header files should no longer conflict with your system's
9047 In order to compile code which #included <libguile.h>, previous
9048 versions of Guile required you to add a directory containing all the
9049 Guile header files to your #include path. This was a problem, since
9050 Guile's header files have names which conflict with many systems'
9053 Now only <libguile.h> need appear in your #include path; you must
9054 refer to all Guile's other header files as <libguile/mumble.h>.
9055 Guile's installation procedure puts libguile.h in $(includedir), and
9056 the rest in $(includedir)/libguile.
9059 ** Two new C functions, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object,
9060 have been added to the Guile library.
9062 scm_protect_object (OBJ) protects OBJ from the garbage collector.
9063 OBJ will not be freed, even if all other references are dropped,
9064 until someone does scm_unprotect_object (OBJ). Both functions
9067 Note that calls to scm_protect_object do not nest. You can call
9068 scm_protect_object any number of times on a given object, and the
9069 next call to scm_unprotect_object will unprotect it completely.
9071 Basically, scm_protect_object and scm_unprotect_object just
9072 maintain a list of references to things. Since the GC knows about
9073 this list, all objects it mentions stay alive. scm_protect_object
9074 adds its argument to the list; scm_unprotect_object remove its
9075 argument from the list.
9078 ** scm_eval_0str now returns the value of the last expression
9081 ** The new function scm_read_0str reads an s-expression from a
9082 null-terminated string, and returns it.
9084 ** The new function `scm_stdio_to_port' converts a STDIO file pointer
9085 to a Scheme port object.
9087 ** The new function `scm_set_program_arguments' allows C code to set
9088 the value returned by the Scheme `program-arguments' function.
9093 * Guile no longer includes sophisticated Tcl/Tk support.
9095 The old Tcl/Tk support was unsatisfying to us, because it required the
9096 user to link against the Tcl library, as well as Tk and Guile. The
9097 interface was also un-lispy, in that it preserved Tcl/Tk's practice of
9098 referring to widgets by names, rather than exporting widgets to Scheme
9099 code as a special datatype.
9101 In the Usenix Tk Developer's Workshop held in July 1996, the Tcl/Tk
9102 maintainers described some very interesting changes in progress to the
9103 Tcl/Tk internals, which would facilitate clean interfaces between lone
9104 Tk and other interpreters --- even for garbage-collected languages
9105 like Scheme. They expected the new Tk to be publicly available in the
9108 Since it seems that Guile might soon have a new, cleaner interface to
9109 lone Tk, and that the old Guile/Tk glue code would probably need to be
9110 completely rewritten, we (Jim Blandy and Richard Stallman) have
9111 decided not to support the old code. We'll spend the time instead on
9112 a good interface to the newer Tk, as soon as it is available.
9114 Until then, gtcltk-lib provides trivial, low-maintenance functionality.
9117 Copyright information:
9119 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
9121 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
9122 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
9123 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
9124 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
9126 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
9127 of this document, or of portions of it,
9128 under the above conditions, provided also that they
9129 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
9134 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"